The past
by deathknight17
Summary: Even after the Tenrou Island incident Chairman Doma makes Lahar keep track of Fairy Tail and search for Tartaros, when Lahar finally questions the Chairman he is taken to a forgotten place to meet a strange prisoner who offers to tell them about the history of Tartaros: its war with the Council and its relationship with Fairy Tail.
1. A long lost secret

Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail… which is quite obvious.

Guran Doma wasn't a patient man by anyone's standard; he hated waiting for reports regardless of how important they were. Everyone knew that keeping the new Chairman waiting wasn't exactly the smartest decision for anyone.

"Crap, the chairman won't be pleased at all!" Lahar muttered to himself angrily "Seriously why is his office at the top of the building, and why is this new building so damn huge!" He exclaimed

Lahar broke into a sprint as he tried making the closest magic elevator; he managed to dive onto it before it took off albeit dropping his report on the impact of the fall.

"Well at least I won't be that late," Lahar thought to himself. He silently picked up the dropped papers of his report and put them back together, while thinking of a way to apologize to the Chairman and not lose his job.

The elevator finally reached the top of the building and Lahar took a moment to compose himself before going to Guran's office. He knocked on the door and waited patiently for the inevitable yelling by the Chairman.

"Lahar, come in," a voice said softly

Lahar took a deep breath before entering the office. The Chairman's office was entirely unimpressive: a hat rack where he kept his hat and where he also hung his cloak, and a medium sized desk with a communications lacrima on it and pictures of people Lahar didn't recognize. The Chairman sat laid back on his chair, his eyes closed, in fact he didn't seem angry at all which surprised Lahar, a moment of silence past before anyone spoke.

"Well, aren't you going to give your report captain?" the Chairman asked quietly

"O-of course chairman, as has been previously reported Tenrou Island is still missing and the Fairy Tail members who were on the island at the time of Acnologia's attack are still missing." Lahar said. He himself didn't understand why the Chairman kept sending him to check on the island, if Acnologia had "visited" the island there was little hope that Fairy Tail had survived the destruction.

"Well that's good, the world is much quieter without having to worry about those damn pests" the Chairman not moving at all. "And what of Tartaros, has there been any action from them?" he asked

"No sir, none of our scouts have reported anything to do with Tartaros. They do an excellent job of staying unnoticed, it feels like they're waiting for something to happen but I can't be too sure. It's almost as if until that something happens they seem content to wait," Lahar said finishing his report

"Hmm, very well captain thank you for your report. However try not to be late next time; I won't be so forgiving twice. You're dismissed" the Chairman said.

Lahar bowed his head in respect before turning towards the door, he stayed in the same place though with many questions swirling through his head.

"Is there any reason why you're staying?"

"Well it's just…" Lahar wasn't exactly sure why he was asking the Chairman, it seemed better to just nod his head and leave. "Just, Chairman Doma with all due respect I don't understand why you seem so intent on observing Tenrou Island or why you continue to ask us to investigate Tartaros. They just seem…"

"Pointless? Was that what you were going to say captain?" the chairman asked

"With all due respect, yes it does!" Lahar blurted out. His face went pale as he realized that he had just told the Chairman of the Magic Council what he was doing was pointless.

"Haha, well I suppose you should take my place then Lahar since you seem to know more about what to do," The chairman said laughing.

"No sir, it's just that I don't understand the logic behind these missions" Lahar said unsure if the Chairman was serious or not.

"It's alright Lahar; I'd probably think less of you if you didn't question your orders every now and then. I've seen what happens to men who follow orders forever before realizing what they've done, the results aren't pretty." The chairman said "Ah, but I digress do you mind if you ask you a couple of questions?

"Of course not sir," Lahar replied

"Good then, Lahar have you ever had a duel to the death with any member of the 10 wizard saints?"

"What? Never sir, I know my limits I'd be crushed in a moment by any of the saints"

"Good response" The chairman replied, suddenly his face grew darker and a hint of anger began to appear on his face, which scared Lahar. "Tell me captain, have you ever had a duel that nearly resulted in your death with the founder of Fairy Tail, seen what happens when Tartaros decides it's time to bring down the Magic Council, seen your friends die by their hands!?" the chairman asked his voice growing louder with each question.

"I have very good reasons for hating both of those damn guilds. The world would be a much better place with both of those guilds smashed to the ground, and any mage who calls themselves a member of those guilds in prison or dead!" The chairman said

Lahar was rooted in place where he stood; he wasn't sure how he or anyone should respond to what he had just heard. Surely the Chairman was joking when he said he had dueled Fairy Tail's founder, Mavis Vermillion he thought to himself. And since when had Tartaros ever taken direct action against the Council, let alone try and bring the entire Council down?

"Lahar, I'm sure you have questions but I'll say this right now… everything I said was true. Come with me," The Chairman said suddenly

He got up put his cloak and hat on took his magical staff with him and moved towards the door. Lahar quietly followed unsure of what to say this point. They exited the office, went down the elevator, and began walking towards the exit. They exited the new Council building and began walking east for what seemed like hours. Lahar was growing tired, and wondered if the Chairman simply took him out here to kill him so he wouldn't tell anyone what the Chairman said.

They finally reached the top of a large hill that overlooked a large empty plain. The Chairman paused staring at the empty fields; a sad look appeared on his face as his eyes scanned the area.

"Um, excuse me sir but why are we here? These fields are empty there's nothing here," Lahar asked

"Captain, these fields have a history you know. Long ago the first building of the Magic Council was here," the Chairman said

"What, the first building? But the first building was the one that Ultear destroyed with her Time Ark. All the documents say it was the first building." Lahar replied incredulously

"This building and this place has long been erased from history, only present in those who witnessed what happened here and were powerful enough to overcome the mass memory manipulation that was done afterwards to make them forget they saw this event." The chairman replied

He then raised his staff to the air and released his magic power. His aura suddenly increased to an amount that Lahar had never seen in his life, the sheer amount of magic power brought him to his knees and it took all his power to simply avoid being crushed to death. The Chairman charged the power through his staff and pointed it towards the empty plains before them; he fired blasts at five different locations on the field in the pattern of a star. He then began to chant something under his breath, his staff now pointed at the center of the plains. He finished the spell he was saying, channeled as much power as he could conjure and fired it into the center. With the spell finished he took a moment to compose himself, he noticed Lahar barely standing up and panting after surviving the Chairman's aura.

"Now watch Lahar you're about to see history first hand," The chairman told him quietly

They watched for long moments, nothing was happening and Lahar was beginning to wonder if the Chairman's spell had worked. As he was about to finally say something, a large magic circle appeared in front of them.

"Wha-What is this?" Lahar asked shocked

The Chairman said nothing as the circle broke, and revealed what it had been hiding for all this time. It showed that the plains were once the location of a large battle that involved hundreds of mages and soldiers. He realized that many of the dead were wearing similar uniforms to his.

"Sir were the ones in white-"

"Soldiers who fought for the Magic Council? Why yes they were, and the other bodies you see were all mages who belonged to Tartaros." The Chairman told him. "As I said these poor souls have long since been forgotten and they lie here alone with no one to mourn their deaths"

Lahar was shocked, how could anyone cast a spell powerful enough to not only hide this scene and prevent anyone from even sensing this place, but to also perfectly preserve the bodies of the dead? The Chairman walked down the hill heading towards the building with Lahar silently watching him. He took a moment to observe the many dead bodies he saw, they were all young men and women and most didn't die a painless death. He also saw a large clump of Council soldiers who didn't have any wounds on them but they were all in large pools of blood with their faces giving a look of pain he couldn't imagine, he began walking towards them to get a closer look before he felt that Chairmen's hand on his shoulder.

"I wouldn't go to close to those bodies; I can still sense Catherine's _blood plague _hanging around them, get too close and you'll get to experience how they died, it's not fun," The Chairman told Lahar

Lahar nodded again wondering how a spell could still be able to last this long and still be able to affect those who got close. They finally entered the building, the amount of bodies Lahar seemed to decrease as they moved away from the plains.

"At this point in the battle, the common soldiers and mages were left outside to simply distract each other, while the real battle happened inside the building between some of the most powerful mages the world had seen at the time," The Chairman explained "But I will tell you more of this later, there is someone you should see" he continued

"But how is it possible that anyone can still be alive in here? Did that seal we saw earlier preserve this person as well?" Lahar asked

"Heavens no, that seal only prevents anyone from finding this place unless they know how to break the seal like I do. No these bodies are only preserved due to the large amounts of magic power that was released during the battle." The chairman answered.

They went down a nearby staircase and entered what Lahar presumed was the dungeon area of the old Council Building. It was similar in construction to the other prisons he had seen in the other Council Buildings. They walked down the long corridor before reaching the end of the hall. The sign next to the door was a warning about the prisoner in the room, the door itself was quite simple but Lahar recognized that there were many magic locks in place to prevent the door from being open from either side of the room. The Chairman whistled to himself as he meticulously unlocked each lock, and finally opened the door.

"Do prepare yourself Lahar, you're about to see something quite shocking" The Chairman warned

"Sir I'm not exactly sure what can trump witnessing a perfectly preserved battle from ages ago" Lahar replied

The chairman gave a small chuckle and they both went into the room. The room was fairly large with many magical chains all leading to one spot in the room. Lahar noticed that the chains weren't the only things designed to keep whoever was in here locked up, hundreds of magic seals were also in there each designed in some way to prevent the prisoner from escaping, with the final seals simply there to kill the prisoner if they could break through the other seals. They walked toward the center where he saw weapons that he presumed were the prisoner's: swords, knives, and many other weapons were all littered around the place. His attention was drawn to a sword in a simple sheath that was closest to them, it was emanating a very dark aura and Lahar felt sick just looking at it.

"It calls for its master," The Chairman explained "That sword is cursed to kill whenever it's drawn, and its master is the only one it will show its true form to. Anyone else who tries to draw that sword is doomed to die. It's better if you don't go close to it"

They finally reached the center where a medium sized anti-magic cell was present, all the seals and chains led to this location. Even though it was designed to not allow magic in the inside, Lahar could still feel a small amount of magic pulsing in the cell and he stared in shock at the Chairman.

"Oh don't worry, even though he can emit magic he can't use it to get himself out. Those seals will prevent that, and he certainly won't try to escape with us watching" The Chairman said assuredly.

They finally came close enough to the cell to see the person inside of the cell. Inside was a young man of about twenty one, he had medium length dark brown hair, his clothes were simple and slightly torn at some places, he was in a trance and was actually floating in the cell.

"This man has survived for decades with nothing but his magic to sustain him. Not only keeping him alive, but allowing him to maintain his youthful appearance. "The chairman said with an air of respect

Suddenly the man opened his eyes; Lahar noticed that the man was not so much surprised to see people in front of his cell, if anything he looked disappointed that only two people came to visit.

"Guran Doma?" the man asked softly breaking the silence "My my you have aged since I've last seen you. In fact you were barely a teenager back then"

"Lahar I'd like to introduce you to the founder of Tartaros… and the older brother of Fairy Tail's founder Mavis Vermillion"


	2. The Tale begins

Lahar was surprised by what he had just heard and couldn't help but start to laugh loudly. Surely the chairman had to be joking right? This man in a cell was the founder of Tartaros? The older brother of Fairy Tail's founder, Mavis Vermillion? And no matter how powerful any mage is it's impossible to stay alive let alone stay eternally young with only their magic.

"It's quite easy really," the prisoner said interrupting Lahar's laugher. "As long as you stay in a magically induced trance and let your magic sustain your body anyone can survive for long periods of time." The prisoner said "It's also useful when you're all alone and nobody ever comes to visit you… seriously Guran why the hell has no one come to visit me?" he asked

"A powerful seal was placed on this area so no one could ever find it or you," Guran answered

"Oh dear, well at least two people came to visit little old me," the prisoner sighed "Even if I want to kill one of them and I don't even know the other one"

"Oh where are my manners, this man I brought with me is named Lahar, he is the Head Captain of the Custody Enforcement Unit under our newly reformed Magic Council of which I am the chairman of" the chairman said

"Wait, they let you back on the Council? Did everyone just forget about what the previous incarnation of the Council nearly did?" the prisoner asked

"Indeed they forgot, mass memory manipulation is quite useful. Also to save ourselves time I'll answer some questions I know you have for me. It's been quite some time since the war between Tartaros and the Council ended, the world has since moved on. The Council was reformed and Tartaros went back into hiding without its leader, the surviving mages who fought against the Council were allowed to go free and move on with their lives. Your beloved sister would later start her own magic guild Fairy Tail which has also been a thorn in the Council's side, something I'm sure you enjoy. Now are there any other questions?" the chairman finished

"Not really a good summary Guran. But still everyone forgot about me? There are no statues of me, bards aren't telling my tale at random bars, and there isn't a day devoted to me? Sheesh that's the last time I do anything for the greater good or the general populace." The prisoner muttered in a huff

"What part of mass memory manipulation do you not understand?"

"The part that means I don't get praised for all my heroic deeds"

"I wouldn't call killing hundreds of people and nearly causing anarchy heroic"

"Better than letting the Council rule over all of Earthland instead of just governing the magical world like they were supposed to"

"If I might interrupt and ask you sir, but what are you two talking about?" Lahar asked

"Ah of course, well allow us to explain to you what happened all those years ago, do grab a seat because this might take some time," The chairman told Lahar

Lahar quickly searched around the area for a seat but couldn't' find one. He simply decided to sit on the floor and listen to the story that the Chairman and the prisoner had to say.

"Alright I suppose you should know a bit about our prisoner here. Long ago he used to be of the Council's most trusted assassins an-"the chairman began

"Wait assassin? Since when did the Council use assassins to maintain order?" Lahar interrupted

"At that time, the use of skilled assassins was necessary to maintain order. Now please don't interrupt me until I'm finished Lahar. As I was saying for a time he was called "The Left Hand of the Council" because of his skill in keeping peace while operating in the shadows. He was the ideal servant of the Council, he never once questioned his orders and always did what he was told…" the chairman said, pausing at the end of the statement.

There was a strange moment of silence; both the chairman and the prisoner were absolutely still, eyes closed, and deep in thought. Lahar was unsure himself of what to say or do for he himself wanted to know more about this old Magic Council that used assassins to keep peace.

"But like I told you before, when loyal dogs begin to question their orders the results don't end up pretty," The chairman finished ominously

"Normally I don't like being called a dog, but our good Chairman is right. I followed orders without a care in the world, granted at the time I was raising my sister so I didn't have much room to question orders. But certainly destroying a legal guild and killing every member but their master demands some questioning wouldn't you agree?" the prisoner asked Lahar with a smile

"I-I don't understand" Lahar said

"What part didn't you get; the Council sanctioned the destruction of a legal guild back in my time. Simply for the reason that they were getting more annoying," the prisoner responded

"Oh please, those _Candor Sabers_ several times fought other legal guilds directly violating the Council's edict and more than once literally did the opposite of our orders simply to spite us." The chairman replied "They were given ample enough warnings, but that Master Kazuo refused to change the guild's ways or at the least step down. Their destruction was necessary to maintain peace throughout the land, unfortunately not all agreed and our good friend here decided that it was time to quit.

Lahar could feel a very hostile air coming from both the Chairman and the prisoner; they were locked in an intense stare down with each other and Lahar wasn't sure if the Chairman would just end it and kill the prisoner while he was in his cell. Suddenly both started laughing but Lahar could still feel a somewhat hostile air coming from both of them.

"Oh it's fun to reminisce about the past, well do you mind telling us your story Chaos?" the Chairman asked

"Chaos?" Lahar asked

"Because I brought chaos for the Council after I left... Well I thought it was funny, can't say Doma and the other councilors saw the humor in it." Chaos said with a dry laugh

"Again, killing hundreds of council soldiers, enforcement individuals, oh and innocent civilians isn't exactly the funniest thing I've ever seen or heard" Guran replied

"Oh you just need to get that stick out of your ass and lighten up. Now let's see what I did after I quit being the Council's Left hand. Well it goes something like this:" Chaos began

He was sure he had made the right decision; he was more or less disappointed in himself that he had served blindly for so long. Granted he was only 12 when he became a Council assassin and didn't know another life and he had believed they always did what was for the best. He wouldn't have to worry about money for a while, he had millions of Jewel in his bank account which was easily enough to support him and Mavis for the foreseeable future. He wondered what Mavis would tell him when he would tell her he quit the job perhaps she'd see him in a better light, she always had this look of disappointment every time he had left to "keep the peace". He didn't care too much what others said, but he did feel a bit sad when she gave him that look. He finally reached his front door, took out his key, opened the door and walked in.

"Whoa, you're home early," a voice said coming from the kitchen

"Mavis if I find the snack cabinet empty again I'm not buying anymore snacks for you." He replied

He heard some frantic movement going on in the kitchen before hearing a loud thump and a small cry from the kitchen. He sighed and walked towards the kitchen muttering a few curses under his breath. He came in and he wasn't sure what to make of the sight, there was his sister lying on the floor holding her head, a large amount of candy wrappers were littered on the floor and the snack cabinet had actually fallen on the floor. He stood there for a few moments again wondering-

"Quick question, Mr. um Chaos" Lahar interrupted "But is this really necessary, I was hoping you'd tell more about how you went from being a Council assassin to being the founder of Tartaros. Also why do you reference yourself as he?" He asked

Chaos stopped and gave a look of death to Lahar who met his gaze, after a few moments Chaos turned his head to Guran "Doma, does this man always interrupt people stronger and more important than him?"

"I'm afraid he's simply curious" Doma answered

"Well then, Mr. Lahar I'll ask you to keep your mouth shut while I tell my story, if you're bored then know that I tend to move quickly and live an action packed life. Because on the off-chance that someone narrated my life the audience wouldn't get bored, so work with me here. Also it's my story I'll use whatever point of view I feel like" Chaos said impatiently. "Now where was I"

Wondering what to say. A wry smile appeared on his face as Mavis finally noticed he had come into the room.

"It's not what it looks like, the cabinet fell on its own and I tried to stop it but I slipped on the wrappers that had fallen on the floor because you had eaten them earlier and didn't throw them away and-" She began

"Wait, are you somehow blaming me for all of this?" he asked incredulously

"Umm, yes it's all your fault big brother. All you're late night candy cravings and then you don't even throw the wrappers away. You ought to be ashamed of yourself," she replied confidently

"Alright you caught me" he said sarcastically "but more important news, I submitted my resignation papers and no longer serve the Council"

"Really! That's great, I'm so proud of you," she said rushing over to give him a hug. "So what are you going to do now? Maybe you should join a guild I'm sure a lot of guilds would give you a chance as long as you leave out the part where you killed people because you were told to" she said happily

"Oh heavens no, joining a legal guild wouldn't be fun at all or do any good," he replied with an annoyed smile

"Wait what?"

"In my line of work you never quit without finding out about something big your bosses are planning to do" he stated as he pried Mavis away from him.

"What do you mean by something big? I know the Council is shady and what not, I'm sure the Sabers would agree with me there but what's worse than destroying a legal guild?' Mavis asked

"Oh you know, unlocking ancient powers that were sealed long ago and using said powers to completely take over Earthland as we know it in order to provide "order" to the land and stop all future wars between squabbling nations" He said matter of factly

Mavis froze in place she mostly wondered how her brother could say something like this as calmly as he did. Also his explanation gave rise to more questions granted she came to expect that from him.

"Wait where are you going?" she asked as she noticed her brother leaving the room "At least help me with the wrappers that I, I mean you left on the floor" she said running after him.

She followed him as he went up the stairs to his room and started packing clothes into a bag he kept under his bed. She watched him as he finally finished packing up his things and turned around before he seemed to notice Mavis watching him.

"Why are you standing there sweetie? Shouldn't you be packing your things as well?" he asked

"Wait, where are we going?"

"Wasn't it obvious from my previous statement? The Council is doing something quite shady, and it requires someone to intervene. Who better than someone who knows them as well as I do?"

"Yeah you're giving me a chance to prove myself! Let's stick it to the ruling class!"

"Whatever just get your things" he muttered, making a quick mental note to stop letting Mavis read any more communist manifestos.

She nodded and ran to her room to pack for the upcoming adventure. When she finished he was waiting for her rather impatiently his feet tapping and he was staring at his watch.

"There you are, someone takes their sweet time now don't they?" he asked

"Geez, I'm sorry why are you in such a rush anyway?" she replied walking down the stairs

"We don't have all the time in the world, from what I've been able to piece together the Councilors are already preparing the ritual that will unlock the ancient powers that lie dormant for now" he said as he took Mavis' bag and headed out the door

"Okay, but surely you and I can't take out the entire Council on our own right? Are we going to meet some of your assassin friends or anyone else?" Mavis asked

"Oh we'll pay a visit to some of my old comrades, but the first person we need to pay a visit to is Master Kazuo,"

"Master Kazuo? Like the Saber's master right? Where could he possibly be right now, nobody has seen him ever since the Sabers were destroyed by the Council, oh I'm sorry a collection of dark guilds." Mavis asked

"Knowing that old crazy bastard, he's most likely in a random field drinking while waiting for a stray lightning strike to kill him, even though he knows that he'll simply absorb the lightning. They don't call him the Thunder God just because they can. The question is… which random field is he in right now?" he answered


	3. The Great Thunder God

"He's in a random field somewhere? How the hell are we supposed to find him if all we know he's in a field! Do you know how many fields there are in Fiore alone?" Mavis asked

"It's not that hard to find old Kazuo all we need to do is find his magic trail and we'll be fine" he replied

"Magic trail, is that real or are you just making that up?" she asked

"It's real not many people know how to follow a trail though, I do and so does every decent assassin. People give off a magic trail without realizing it, it's subtle though and you won't be able to see it with the naked eye. You just need to focus your magic power on your eyes and you'll be able to see the trails of any mage." He replied

"Well assuming what you just said is true, how could you possibly find Kazuo's trail? I mean there's got to be hundreds of intersecting trails that every mage accidently emits right?

"Don't worry this is Kazuo we're talking about, he leaves a magic trail like a slug… don't tell him I said that. Anyway it's quite easy to pick his trail out" he said

Mavis sighed deciding it wasn't worth it to press the issue about fictional ways of tracking people, besides she knew her brother could track people with some skill, after all he was a Council assassin for a reason. They walked for a bit before she noticed that there seemed to be people watching them, she couldn't be sure as every time she looked around nobody was looking them at all and the feeling left her.

"Hey, doesn't it feel like-"

"There are people following us? It's a good thing that you can feel it little sister it means you're certainly improving in your magical sense. But yes people are following us, Mavis I haven't been completely honest with you" he replied

"Why am I not surprised that you wouldn't tell the complete truth to even your sister?" she asked her hair twitching angrily

"I may have actually eavesdropped on the meeting not so stealthily, I was eventually found killed the assassins who were sent to kill me initially and then I walked home. I assume the ones following us are here to make sure I don't cause too much trouble" he finished

Mavis momentarily froze again at her brother's candidness and calmness that bordered on apathy. She sighed and continued to walk alongside her brother who was actually humming to himself as they seemed to continue off in no particular direction. They finally reached the exit to the City and she realized that her brother had stopped humming to himself and now seemed more intense and prepared than he she had seen him before. She figured that once they had gotten far enough from the city the assassins would make their move and her brother was already preparing herself. She was a bit nervous herself, the only person she had ever fought before was her brother and although her brother tended to show no mercy during their spars he never had the intent of killing her… or so she figured.

"Well shall we begin?" she heard her brother say quietly

He suddenly stopped in his place and in a quick flash drew out a hidden short sword and slashed down to his right. Mavis was as surprised as the assassin was when she saw her brother's sword had cleaved through the assassin's arm. The assassin didn't have enough time to even scream at his lost limb before her brother quickly decapitated him with a second slash.

"Please boys, you can't tell me you thought we weren't going to notice you guys following us" her brother said with a wide smile on his face. "Mavis if I were you I'd at least put your _light shield _around you by now" he suggested

She nodded and quickly cast the spell on herself. She saw the rest of the assassins come out of hiding, there were six of them and each had the same set of tattoos on their arms as her brother did. Her brother still had a wide smile on his face and he seemed excited that these assassins were trying to kill them. She knew better than to get in her brother's way while he was this excited; for all she knew his bloodlust would make him see her as a potential threat so she was content to simply stand back in support.

"Let's see how long you guys can last!" her brother yelled happily as he charged at the six men in front of him.

Two of the assassins came to meet him quickly, although neither lasted too long. A quick slash across the body brought the first one down; he quickly grabbed the assassin's weapon and jammed it through the other's eye. The second one gave a horrific cry and fell in a pool of his blood, Mavis sighed as she noticed her brother beginning to laugh while the other assassins took a step back, shocked at his ferocity.

"Come on now, I was hoping you guys could give me some entertainment. Man clearly the Council doesn't see me as too much of a threat if they're sending you scrubs," he said sighing as he took a lick of the blood on his sword

One of the assassins stuck his hand out and formed a magic circle. A wave of bladed shadows shot out of the circle towards Chaos who stood perfectly still. The shadows hit him and a large amount of smoke appeared, Mavis gave out a worried cry for her brother, but as the smoke began to disappear she noticed that he was perfectly fine with no scratches.

"Well I guess you guys can't hurt me even if I'm going to let you… oh well better get this over with and kill you all" he sighed

He charged at the assassin who had just attacked, the assassin tried a downward stab with his knife but Chaos kicked it away and slashed him across his neck ending his life and sending a warm spray of blood onto Chaos' coat. He turned to face the remaining three, but noticed that one of the assassins was gone.

"Ah!" he exclaimed realizing the dying assassin had managed to use the last bit of his magic to trap him where he stood with his shadow magic.

He felt the presence of the missing assassin behind him; however the assassin gave a cry after being hit by the light beam that had just been shot through his chest. Chaos followed the beam to a magic circle near Mavis' outstretched arm; he gave a nod of thanks to her as he broke the shadows around his ankle. The other two assassins already charged at him before he broke out of the shadow lock. He parried the blade of the first one, grabbed the assassin by the face and threw him into a nearby tree. The second assassin tried using a magical strike at close range, but Chaos quickly threw his sword through the mouth of the assassin bringing him to the ground.

"Ah, it's over" Chaos said sadly as he pulled his sword out of the assassin's mouth

He noticed tears running down Mavis' face as she was staring at her hands. He was slightly surprised before figuring out that Mavis had never killed anyone in her life before and was probably feeling some guilt right now. He walked over to her before he realized all too late that he probably wouldn't be able to empathize with her.

"So, uh good job back there you certainly saved me a bit of trouble" he said trying to cheer her up

"B-B-But I didn't have to kill him!" she said sobbing. She ran over and hugged her brother burying her head in his bloodstained coat.

"Um Mavis I have blood on this coa… you know what it's nothing. Besides you did good kid, you had to get your first kill out of the way at some point if you were going to help me. Think of it this way that assassin wasn't a good person at all, so by killing him you just took some evil out of the world!" he said encouragingly patting her on the head

"That doesn't help at all!" she said crying even louder now

"Come on Mavis you just killed a guy it could have been worse, I mean his family could have been there watching you do it" he tried

"That's even worse" she said crying much louder than Chaos thought possible

"Ok probably shouldn't have said that, look point is you're going to get over it and you shouldn't let it bring you down, you're stronger than that" he said with a weak smile on his face

Her grip weakened and she finally let him go after a few more minutes, she wiped the tears from her face and gave a small sigh. She noticed that the assassin Chaos had thrown against the tree was beginning to regain consciousness; he quickly got up and began running away.

"Hey, big brother he's getting away!" she yelled pointing fervently at the running figure.

"Hmm, oh no problem" he replied

He snapped his fingers and a magical circle appeared on the assassin's face, the assassin stopped before the mark suddenly exploded with magic energy. The upper half of the assassin's body was blown off and he fell to the ground dead.

"Wha-What was that?" Mavis asked shocked

"My magic, essentially anything I touch I have the ability to detonate with a snap of my fingers," he said as he started walking again

"Wait everything? But you touched me, how come I didn't end up like that guy?" she asked

"I have two checks to make sure I don't explode people I don't want to: first is that I have to touch you while my hand is covered in my magic the second is that I detonate the seals that I want to" he finished

Mavis realized that even when her brother wasn't fighting simply by touching someone they would be at his mercy without them ever realizing making her shudder at the thought.

"Wait for me," Mavis yelled running after her brother "So have you found Kazuo's trail?"

"Of course like I said he's like a slug with his magic trail it's quite easy to find. We're starting to get closer which is why I decided it was time to deal with our friends over there, any longer and we would have led them to our depressed friend" he said "heads up!" he shouted

He quickly jumped out of the way as a lightning bolt struck where he was just standing. Unfortunately Mavis wasn't fast enough and got hit directly by the strike; luckily her _light shield_ was still active and absorbed most of the damage although her hair suffered serious damage.

"Ow, grrr what are you looking at" she asked her brother who was trying hard to stifle his laughter

"Oh nothing, it's just that I wish you had told me we were in the 80's hahaha you look so ridiculous" he exclaimed finally giving into his laughter

She was too angry to say anything to her brother, besides she wanted to know where this random lightning strike had come from, she had sworn it was sunny a moment ago. She looked up and was shocked that although it was sunny all around them, the place they were in right now was all dark and cloudy with lightning strikes happening at an alarming rate. She also saw a large figure about 100 feet away crouched down facing away from them with hundreds of wine bottles surrounding the figure.

"Mavis, meet the_ Thunder God_, Kazuo" Chaos said quietly as he began walking towards the figure "Do be careful about stray lightning strikes, he's depressed and honestly doesn't care if we get killed by him."

She nodded and formed a stronger light shield around herself, however her brother continued to walk ignoring the lightning that struck him every once in a while although Mavis was more angry that his hair stayed in perfect condition regardless of how many lightning strikes he got. They walked gingerly over the many wine bottles strewn about the area, and as they got closer Mavis could hear very loud crying coming from the large figure.

"Hey Kazuo, it's certainly been sometime since we last met!" Chaos said happily

An awkward moment of silence passed by before Kazuo turned around to see who had come to visit him.

"Wayne is that you? Oh, you're still alive!" the figure exclaimed obviously drunk

"No it's not Wayne, he's dead. Don't you remember me Kazuo, the guy who used to party with you guys after missions and the guy who informed you what happened to your guild after they all died while you were traveling somewhere?" he asked

"Don't you think you should be nicer to the guy? And stop being so calm about how his entire guild was destroyed while he was away! I mean he probably feels like he should have been there to protect them or something" Mavis chastised

"Hey if anything this man should finally be able to empathize with me, my parents were killed in front of me when I was ten and my hometown was burned to the ground. Did I spend my time getting drunk? Nooo I hunted down and killed every single bandit who had attacked the village before joining the Council and then finding and raising you." He replied

"I'm just saying, not everyone is able to treat the death of their loved ones as easily as you can" She replied "Let me try, ahem. Hey Mr. Kazuo my brother and I have something very important to tell you"

"What's so important that you decided to interrupt my mourning for my lost comrades" Kazuo asked still crying

"Well Kazuo, I may have not told you the entire truth when I said dark guilds killed everyone you love and hold close to you… they might have been led by one of the Councilors themselves" Chaos said with a smile

"What!?" Kazuo replied angrily, he quickly rose up grabbed Chaos and slammed him to the ground "Why the hell didn't you tell me earlier!" he asked angrily

"They told me not to, so I didn't" Chaos replied calmly ignoring the blood now obscuring his vision "besides what would you have done? Tried to kill them all before getting mobbed to death by the rest of the Council? You might be one of the 10 wizard saints old timer, but even you can't bring down the Council on your own, ouch" Chaos said as he Kazuo now started charging lightning through his hands which was starting to annoy Chaos

"Give me one reason that I shouldn't just crush you where you lie right now assassin!" he told him angrily "and be sure to give the correct response"

Mavis noticed that for the first time in his life, her brother looked legitimately scared at what another person might do.

"Well because if you killed me now… who'd help you get revenge on the Council and more importantly give you the name of which Councilor led the attack on your guild" Chaos replied with a smirk on his face

"Hmm, you have a point there" Kazuo said as he let Chaos go "But you better be serious about this assassin" he finished ominously.

"Oh don't worry mister Kazuo, he's very serious. His life is at stake that's the one think my brother truly cares about" Mavis said with a smile

"Not true, I care about you too" Chaos replied with a frown

"Ah, you haven't introduced me to this adorable little girl assassin. What's your name sweetie, what are you doing here?" Kazuo asked with a smile

"I'm Mavis Vermillion and I'm here to help you and my brother bring down the Magic Council for their crimes to your guild and their future crimes!" she replied confidently

"Hahaha, I like this girl she knows what to do, so what now? I'm sure us the three would do some damage but perhaps others are necessary" he asked

"Don't worry Kazuo, I have a list of people we're going to be recruiting and I'm sure with you in the gang they might think we can actually pull this off. We're going to pay a visit to an old friend of mine" Chaos said as he began walking

"Ah, big brother who are we looking for, where are we going?" Mavis asked as she and Kazuo followed

"To the Great frozen North where a certain Drexel Fullbuster lives by herself, now hurry up time isn't on our side." He said walking north.


	4. The White Death

"In the interest of time I'm going to skip most of the walk to the frozen North, it did take a few days and nothing entertaining happened… besides a few Kazuo taking his rage out on the unfortunate assassins sent to kill us" Chaos told his two listeners

"How bad were the bodies?" Guran asked

"What bodies? Anyway back to the story"

It had been a long walk for the group and even longer since they had last had a decent place to sleep for the night. Chaos was hellbent on getting to Drexel's house as soon as possible and the closer they got the more intent he was on not stopping even for a quick break. Mavis at this point had already tired out and was being carried Kazuo who seemed to never tire out.

"Hey assassin how much longer till we reach your friend's house? You said we'd be there in 10 minutes an hour ago." Kazuo asked

"I only said that to try and get Mavis to keep walking, but since you're carrying her you can ignore that statement. We're about 5 minutes away now so take heart… also why do you keep calling me assassin? I told you I no longer work for the Council" Chaos replied

"True, but frankly even though we've known each other for a while and you have attended many Saber parties I don't know your name. So what would you like me to call you assassin?" Kazuo said

"Anything but assassin, that name is just getting annoying old man." He replied

"Fine then, but stop calling me old man! I'm barely fifty you know and I'm still capable of living another fifty years"

"We have a deal then Kazuo"

They finally saw the outline of an average sized house coming up and began to pick up the pace to escape the endless snowfall. They finally reached the door and Chaos knocked on the door and began waiting patiently for Drexel to answer the door. In the meantime Kazuo dropped Mavis on a folded chair on the porch and joined Chaos in waiting for the door to open. Mavis shifted the chair to face the door and seemed to be the only person that noticed the note on the door that read "On a journey, I'll be back as soon as possible".

"Um, guys am I the only one who notices the sign on the door that says she's not here?" Mavis asked

Chaos stopped his knocking for a second and both he and Kazuo seemed to see the sign for the first time. They stared at it for a good five seconds, while Mavis sighed and laid back on the chair she was sitting on.

"On a journey, well what the hell are we supposed to do while she's gone?" Kazuo asked

"Like hell she's on a journey, Drexel open the fucking door right now!" Chaos yelled as he started pounding on the door

"Idiot, it's clear she's not here we'll just have to find someone else on your list or leave her a note" Kazuo said as he watched Chaos

"No, if I leave a note she's not going to join us on the journey." Chaos replied

"Well you said she was one of your old friends I'm sure she'd be glad to work with you, especially on something this important." Mavis said

"Mavis, Kazuo, I haven't been entirely honest with you" Chaos began

"Why am I not surprised?" Mavis sighed

"Drexel and I used to be good friends. We worked together on several missions on the past but let's just say our last mission didn't end so well and she's kind of mad at me. That's why it's better if I talk to her, she'll at least have to listen to me" Chaos said with a smile on his face "Now there are two possibilities, either she's out like the note says or she's inside and refuses to open the door for me"

"Well what are we supposed to do then?" Kazuo asked

"Simple, break down the door… Kazuo go!" Chaos said pointing at the door while backing up

"Wha-What, why me?" Kazuo asked surprised

"Duh because you're the strongest out of all us, if she has any magical protection on her door you can easily break it down." Chaos replied as he now was off the porch and hiding behind the rails

"Ha, well when you put it like that" Kazuo said winding up his arm "Take this!"

The punch easily broke the door down and out of its foundation causing it to fly and get stuck in a wall inside the house.

"Huh? Guess it didn't have any magic protection on it" Chaos remarked as he got out of his hiding place and walked in the house

"Ah, might have hit it too hard" Kazuo said observing the new wall decoration he had caused

"You guys are just idiots, there's no other way to describe you" Mavis sighed

"Alright now that we're in the house time to search for good ole Drexel. Kazuo you and I will cover the downstairs area and perhaps raid her fridge for something to eat. Mavis you go search upstairs." Chaos told them as he headed for the kitchen

"Wait, why do I have to search the entire upstairs portion by myself?" Mavis asked angrily

"Your brother's right young one. Think about it if Drexel is upstairs she's most likely showering or in her room, we men can't enter it without her getting angry at us, trying to kill us, or us losing our honor as men. However if she sees an adorable teenage girl like yourself, then she'll at least take a moment to wonder who you are before doing anything" Kazuo explained

"Sure, our honor as men or something like that" A voice was heard with sounds coming from the kitchen

Mavis sighed angrily as she knew she would be outvoted in this matter although Kazuo's explanation did make some sense. She went up the stairs and began looking for Drexel although she still had no idea who she was. She began her search looking through each room and calling for Drexel, but each was the same no Drexel in sight. After checking through every room including the bathroom and what she guessed was Drexel's bedroom she walked downstairs and heard laughter from the kitchen.

"Damn those two, they're making me do all the work!" she said twitching angrily

She was about to storm into the kitchen before she looked out one of the windows and noticed a person coming towards the house. She quickly hid behind the couch and watched as the figure got closer to the house and Mavis realized it was a woman.

"Well I guess that's Drexel, that's a relief at least we can talk to her now." Mavis thought "Oh crap, the door! She's going to figure out we broke in and try and kill us on sight!" Mavis figured

Drexel reached the house and paused for a moment to inspect the misplaced door which was now stuck to the wall inside her house

"Great, I've been robbed. I miss the robbers of old who just used to break your window, take what they wanted, and then left an apology note." She muttered as she entered to inspect the house

She calmly went to the door jutting from her wall and with one heave pulled it out of the wall and jammed it back into its proper place. Mavis poked her head above the couch to observe Drexel as she placed the door back in place. Drexel had black hair going down to her shoulder, deep brown eyes, a slim figure with just the right amount of curves, and her face was spotless except for a small scar on her right cheek, in short Mavis thought she was beautiful. Drexel paused a moment before turning around with a small frown on her face.

"Little girl, do you know who did this?" Drexel asked looking at the couch Mavis was hiding behind

"Oh, you knew I was here?" Mavis asked again poking her head above the couch

"Indeed, you need to do a much better job of concealing your magic aura you're quite easy to spot. Again, do you know who did this or… were you the one who caused this?" Drexel asked now walking towards Mavis

"Well, I guess I shoul-" Mavis began before getting cut off by frantic action in the kitchen

"Shit Kazuo I think Drexel is back get up!" Mavis heard her brother say not so quietly. She slapped her forehead in disappointment and simply pointed towards the kitchen.

"They're the idiots who decided to break your door down" Mavis said

"I see… I have a feeling I know one of those idiots" Drexel said now walking in the kitchen

She walked in and was taken aback by the strange scene in her kitchen. There was Chaos trying desperately to lift the clearly drunk Kazuo up to face Drexel. She also noticed most of her wine bottles and beer cans all empty and surrounding the two of them. Chaos noticed her and the developing rage beginning to show on her face, he dropped Kazuo and quickly headed to the nearest window.

"_Freeze" _

The spell froze the window with a thick layer of ice before Chaos could even get halfway to the window.

"Well I see your ice magic is as fast as ever" Chaos said turning around with a weak smile on his face

"Here you are breaking into my house, drinking all of my booze, and apparently tricking the Thunder God and that adorable girl back there into joining your gang… it's like you want me to kill you." Drexel said with a smirk on her face now getting into her battle stance.

"Now Drexel let's be civil about this, yes I entered into your house without your permission. However in my defense Kazuo did the door busting and the drinking of most of your booze. Greedy bastard barely left me with a bottle of that expensive looking brandy. Now I'm sure you're wondering why me, the Thunder God, and my adorable sister have travelled here to find you" Chaos said

"Not really._ Lance, war hammer._" Drexel said quickly

"Damn it all" Chaos muttered quietly as he dodged the three attacks.

He touched the ice covering the window, snapped his fingers, and dived out the window as soon as the ice exploded. Drexel followed after him very determined to kill Chaos.

"Wait, can't we talk this over?" Mavis yelled at them

"Let them fight it out. Those children just need to let their anger out before working together" Kazuo said

"Master Kazou, she's clearly trying to kill my brother. I think you're drunk" Mavis replied slightly annoyed

"Haha, you have much to learn about how two adults with romantic tension deal with each other. Although you are right about me being drunk"

"My brother and romance? That's as likely as me starting a mages guild" Mavis replied, although she did wonder if her brother had affairs with women on missions only to leave them forever after the missions were over "Now that seems more like him" she thought

Chaos brushed off the dirt on his coat before quickly ducking a flurry of ice lances fired at him by Drexel. He turned around to see Drexel walking towards him slowly both her hands pointing at him.

"_Ice Giant, frozen wasteland" _

"Wait a moment, since when could you cast spells at the same time with each hand?" Chaos asked in disbelief

"Get to know me, I'm amazing" she replied with a sly smile

Chaos knew he needed to quickly go on the offensive as his magic worked better in a relentless assault. He released some of his aura to crush the newly formed ice surrounding him and threatening to take over any place he was standing on. The giant was his main concern; simply distracting Drexel and trying to get her to lose focus wasn't going to work as even a spell as demanding as this one she could control with little effort. Even with one hand focused on the giant, she could still keep up an attack as Chaos recently found out.

"jeez I just wanted to talk" he muttered angrily as he was formulating a plan

He grabbed a few chunks of ice his aura broke and threw them at the giant. The giant reached out to slap it out of its way exactly what Chaos had planned on it doing, with a snap of his finger the ice suddenly burst into a medium sized explosion destroying the outstretched arm of the giant.

"How weak do you think I am?" Drexel asked as with a twist of her arm the Giants blown off arm regrew "Apparently pretty weak if you thought I couldn't repair it, _Rose Garden"_ she said casting a new spell

Chaos began dodging the oncoming roses which he thought were fairly pretty and the Giant which had resumed its attack. He jumped in order to dodge the giant's arm and began running up the Giant while making sure to touch the giant with his left hand. He gave a small slap on the face of the giant, jumped up to avoid another blow from the giant, snapped his finger and watched as the giant exploded underneath him.

"Ah, you owe me money Master Kazuo, I told you my brother would figure out how to kill that giant" Mavis said

"Not fair, you can't make bets with a drunken man especially because he's not in the right state of mind" Kazuo complained

"Nobody told you to drink old man, just don't forget my money or I'll send my brother and some goons to break your legs until you give me my money," Mavis replied with an evil grin on her face

"Ah, such a cruel child. What has your brother taught you?" Kazuo cried

Chaos made a quick note to lecture at Mavis for not helping him during a fight when she had a chance before focusing on the fight again. Now was his only chance to end the fight before Drexel could summon another giant thing to crush him. He quickly positioned his body so that his head was pointing at Drexel, he drew his hidden sword and two knives, and gathered magic around his feet before exploding it sending him flying towards Drexel at high speeds.

"Where did he go?" Drexel thought trying to look past the falling ice for Chaos "Oh there he is, hurdling at me very quickly" she said calmly casting both an _ice spike _and_ ice lance _determined to bring Chaos down

Chaos used his short sword to deflect the spikes and lances that would have killed him letting the weaker ones hit him knowing they wouldn't do much damage. He then threw the two knives at Drexel; she drew up a small ice shield to block the knives, she brought up a large shield to defend herself realizing she wouldn't be able to bring Chaos down in time. Chaos channeled his magic into his short sword and the moment it touched the shield his magic was released causing a large enough explosion to break the shield and his sword and left Drexel open to him.

"Ah, I think the fight is over Master Kazuo" Mavis said now as she finished counting the money Kazuo had given her.

"Well hopefully they didn't kill each other" Kazuo said getting up as he and Mavis went to survey the large amount of dust mixed with ice floating in the air. They finally made it through the large amount of ice and saw Chaos on top of Drexel with a knife across her throat while Drexel's right arm which was covered with ice blades was across Chaos' throat.

"So who won?" Mavis asked

"It's a draw meaning that she'll at least have to listen to me," chaos said with a smile

"Indeed it's a draw so if you don't mind moving your knife from my throat and getting off of me I'll listen to your story," Drexel replied with a smile

"Like hell I will, get that arm away from me and I will," Chaos replied

"How about I solve this" Kazuo sighed as he grabbed both of them roughly, picked them up, and separated them while still holding them aloft "Is that better?" he asked

"Eh, it works for now. Now Drexel if you'll be kind enough to listen to why we're here" Chaos began.

He told her every detail of Council's plan to try and release the ancient powers sealed to try and dominate all of Earthland. He also explained how he and Mavis found Kazuo and convinced him to join their cause.

"That's one hell of story right there… any hard evidence or do I have to go by what you've said?" Drexel asked

"Oh no I have evidence, Kazuo give her the files I showed you while you were drunk," Chaos replied

"Yeah, here you go miss" Kazuo said giving her the files he had taken out of his pack

"Hey, how come you didn't show me those files?" Mavis asked

"Well you never asked," Chaos replied

"Man…" Drexel replied as she read through the files "No question about it, these are diagrams on how to unlock some ancient magic alright. I knew the Council did some shady things, well you and I did those shady things, but still this is world domination we're talking about. What the hell is Kaizus thinking?" she continued

"So will you join us?" Chaos asked

"Hmm although I'm still thinking on how to torture you to death I'm sure this is just a bit more important right now." She said "But that can be done tomorrow"

"Tomorrow?" Chaos asked

"Well yeah, I just finished a long journey I'm not just going to leave on another without taking some time off, besides I want to know what you're planning and who else will be joining us in the future. There's also no need to rush right now, no way the Council can do something like this quickly one mistake and they'll all die. They'll take their time don't worry… and as much as it pains me to say this you three are welcome to stay the night" She said

"Yeah we finally get a break!" Mavis exclaimed happily as she ran back into the house to escape the cold

They followed her in and Kazuo and Chaos quickly made themselves at home once again in her house resuming their drinking while Drexel went upstairs to shower.

"Hey aren't there any kid friendly drinks I'm thirsty too you know" Mavis said

"Mavis you're in a single woman's house, why the hell would Drexel ever have kids over? So all she has are drinks for herself which all happen to be alcoholic go get some water that'll do too," Chaos replied as he fought Kazuo for a bottle of sake

Mavis grumbled a bit and her hair twitched in annoyance before she decided there was no point and got herself some water. Kazuo quickly fell asleep in a drunken stupor forcing Mavis and Chaos to lift up his large figure and dump him on a couch he was clearly too big for. They waited for Drexel in the kitchen and passed the time with idle conversation while Mavis looked through the files

"Hey, be honest with me how good are our chances of actually stopping the Council from doing this?" Mavis asked

"To be honest it very much depends on how many mages we're able to convince to join us. The Councilors themselves are some of the strongest mages in the world which is why they're councilors. They'd easily be a match for me, heck they even have a mage who could fight Kazuo on equal grounds."

"What!? How can anyone match the Thunder God himself, he's one of the Ten Wizard saints!" Mavis exclaimed in shock

"They have Wizard Saints too you know some of them make me look downright weak. But as long as we get the right mages to match up against them then it shouldn't be an issue. But that might take a bit because some of the Councilors I'm not sure how to beat them or if there's mage that can beat them let alone survive long enough for one of us to stop the ritual." Chaos said

"That doesn't even begin to cover how we're going to get enough mages to match up against their common soldiers and enforcement troops" Drexel said entering the room

"Ah Drexel there you are, you sure take your sweet time" Chaos said

"My bad, I fell asleep in the tub but hey I'm all stress free now so it's all good" she said sitting down at the table. "Also is Kazuo going to be okay, he seems different than the Thunder God I'm used to seeing and hearing about" she asked

"He's just dealing with some depression right now, trust me when I say when it comes to the Council though he'll do everything to kill them" Chaos assured her

"Yeah those assassins didn't know what they were dealing with. I actually felt bad for them although they tried to kill us," Mavis added

"Well that's good. So who else are we going to go after this?" Drexel asked

"Well I know some former assassins like us who might be willing to join in, but frankly I'm not sure if they'd be enough. Then there's the whole we'd need an army thing, but one thing at a time I always say" Chaos answered

"Well if I might be so bold as to offer a suggestion, I know someone who'd be an excellent addition to the team. She's powerful enough to give me this scar you see on me and I'm fairly sure she wasn't even fighting at half her capabilities." Drexel began

"Really now, who is this mystery woman?" Chaos asked suddenly interested

"Her name's Julie or Julia I think. Anyway like I said very powerful, she's a dragon slayer."

"Dragon slayer? Please those mages are overrated and they won't shut up about being raised by dragons. Oooh look at me I was taught magic by a dragon, that's not going to stop me from killing you and your dragon. " Chaos muttered angrily "Also ha you could wounded by a dragon slayer" he snickered

"Pretty sure even you and I working together couldn't kill the dragon that raised her"

"Oh, who raised her? Igneel, Metalicana, Bios?" Chaos asked listing the only three dragons he had ever met and fought against

"Try Acnologia"


	5. The Child of Acnologia

"W-What?! She was raised by Acnologia? You mean the dragon that destroyed an entire country for the reason that it could? You're telling me that very dragon who sees humans as nothing more than pests was willing to leave a child alive, not only that but teach it how to slay it?" Mavis exclaimed in utter disbelief

"That's exactly what I'm saying" Drexel responded calmly

"Come on big brother support me on this, you've travelled the entire world before and you never told me about anyone like that!" she said

"I've never met any dragon slayer like that before or heard of Acnologia training a kid." Chaos responded

"See Drexel, what you heard was probably a stupid rumor tha-"

"Granted it is possible to reason with Acnologia if you know what to say like I do" Chaos interrupted

"Wait what?" both Drexel and Mavis exclaimed with shock

"What, I've met him a couple of times while killing people for the Council. I offered to house sit for him while he was out destroying a few cities. He politely refused but he thanked me for my offer and left to presumably burn said cities"

"I-I don't even know how to respond." Drexel muttered in shock

"You met Acnologia and lived!? How come you never told me about that?" Mavis asked angrily

"Well you never asked" Chaos responded

"How am I supposed to know you met Acnologia on a mission? It's not like it's a common thing for people to see!" Mavis yelled even louder

"No need to yell, the point is Acnologia sometimes lets people live. Who knows maybe he destroyed the kid's village and then raised the kid as a final sting to the people he just killed" Chaos hypothesized

"Why would he go through that much trouble just to spite a village he just destroyed?" Drexel asked

"Because he probably thought it was funny, heck it's making me laugh just thinking of the scene. A giant dragon destroying a village and then spotting a tiny child mourning her parents' death and he thinks to himself 'hey you know what would really rile up her dead parents? If I took care of her and taught her magic' and on this one impulse presents himself to the child and takes care of her for the next 13 or so years until she's old enough to go on and take care of herself. At this point Acnologia cries at the young woman he grew to love as his daughter…as he flies off to destroy another village" Chaos said laughing at the final scene

Both Mavis and Drexel weren't sure how to react to Chaos' thought process at all, but they understood why the sight of Acnologia ever crying for a person would be funny.

"And the… haha" In the current time Chaos had begun laughing and was now on the floor of his cell holding his ribs

"Well looks like he's going to be that way for a while." Guran muttered

"Excuse me…" Lahar tried to say getting Chaos to listen alas it was to no avail

"We'll just wait until he's done laughing" Guran said "Still the idea of Acnologia doing all of that and then crying at the end, haha" Guran said now joining Chaos in the laughter

"Not you too Chairman" Lahar sighed

It was a good five minutes before both Chaos and the Chairman were able to stop laughing and sit up.

"Ah what a good laugh, but I should probably get back to the story now. Let's see I was laughing for a while back then too, well we'll just skip to the next day because that's when we actually began to look for this dragon slayer," Chaos said

"So where did you end up fighting this mystery dragon slayer Drexel?" Chaos asked

"Hmm, it was in Bosco I think. Ah that's right I had just crossed the border between Fiore and Bosco when I saw that woman" Drexel responded

"Was she hot?" Kazuo chimed in

"Is that really important Master Kazuo?" Mavis asked slightly annoyed

"Well she was quite a looker if I remember her correctly, granted not as attractive as yours truly, but then again not many are" Drexel answered

"Oh please Drexel if you're the gold standard of women then I'm right to avoid them from now on," Chaos said smirking

"Why you little," Drexel said releasing a bit of her magic aura

"Now, now children this is no way to handle things," Kazuo said picking both of them up again "Now we all know there's some romantic tension between you two, it's okay to admit it you know nobody's judging… except Mavis perhaps and to a slight extent me," he finished

"There's no romantic tension between us. If anything all I can sense from her is a desire to do awful things to me. Also do you mind putting me down?" Chaos responded

Kazuo sighed and dropped both of them unceremoniously to the ground. They both got up quickly dusted themselves and walked towards a nearby village in order see if anyone had seen the dragon slayer.

"Ms. Fullbuster, I've been wondering… why do you want to kill my older brother so badly?" Mavis asked

"Just call me Drexel sweetie and I have a very good reason for trying to kill your brother. The son of a bitch left me all alone to face off some fifty very angry mages after we had finished killing their leader. Granted I probably should have seen it coming knowing your brother and I did survive, but I'm still going to kill him or at least make him scream for a bit." Drexel responded with a smile

Chaos shuddered at the thought and paused to let Drexel walk in front of him just so he wouldn't be worried about an ice blade in his back or in worse places.

"Well then, about this Julie or Julia, Drexel" Kazuo said trying to break the silence

"Hmm? Oh yeah like I said she was quite a looker. She's about an inch taller than me at best, slim figure some great curves," Drexel said pausing at that last part making Chaos and Kazuo interested in hearing more about this "interesting" woman

"Go on" Chaos said trying to picture Julie in his head

"Let's see, she had some pretty blue eyes, but the strangest thing about her was her unnatural pink hair color… I mean seriously is that even possible?" Drexel finished

"How'd she wear her hair?" Chaos asked

"Wh-Why is that even important? A pony tail I think"

"Did she wear it over her shoulder, was it tight or loose, and was it low or normal?" Chaos asked

"You care way too much about hair" Drexel responded

"Exactly why my hair and Mavis' which I did a brilliant job of styling is leagues better than that mess you call hair" Chaos said derisively

"Why you little!" Drexel said diving at Chaos

"Ah to be young again, but I'm afraid both of you will be put in timeout for the time being" Kazuo said while getting in the way and holding Drexel back as she vainly tried to claw at Chaos' face.

"Seriously you two fight way too much, at the rate we're going we'll probably lose to a bunch of puppies" Mavis said

A few minutes passed by in relative silence before they finally arrived at the village they were looking for. Kazuo decided that it would be better for them to split up and return at the village center. They all agreed and each went in a different direction, although both Drexel and Chaos managed to agree on forcing Kazuo to go to the dry portion of the village so he wouldn't get distracted. Drexel was the last to return an hour after the other three had gotten there and she was visibly drunk and struggling to walk to them.

"What's wrong with all of you? It's like all three of you are raging alcoholics!" Mavis berated them "And you!" she said pointing at Chaos

"What I didn't end up drunk like she did" Chaos said defensively

"Not this time, but I remember how much you drank at Drexel's house. Also I'm now beginning to remember you drinking way before it was legal for you to do so" Mavis said angrily

"What can I say? Those companies got me with their promise that I would get cooler if I drank… and they were right" Chaos responded dismissing his sister's anger "Now what did we find out, I got nothing other than people suggesting I go see a mental doctor for thinking Acnologia ever trained a kid"

"Well I heard that a person actually fought this slayer" Drexel said quite loudly

"That was you, now anyone who's sober got anything?" Chaos asked

"Well I got two separate rumors about our dragon slayer. One said that a woman who matches our description was in Magnolia Town a few days ago. The other rumor was that this same woman was leaving Magnolia and was headed to Crocus for whatever reason. Although they didn't know what her name was" Kazuo said

"Weird master Kazuo because the one of the people I talked to said he had heard that a powerful dragon slayer who wielded a weird element was in Oshibana Town and was staying there" Mavis reported

"Well that's no good. So we've got two possible places where our dragon slayer can be in and they happen to be far away" Chaos said deep in thought

"Wait a minute!" Drexel suddenly exclaimed "I too got information about that Julie in the bar I was at and she was in Era" Drexel finished

"Alright then so three places where she can be. Well this search is off to a great start" Chaos muttered

"Well I guess we'll have to visit all three and see what happens" Kazuo suggested

"That will take too long we need to go to all three places at once because she could leave at anytime. I think we should split up and search for her in all three cities" Mavis offered

"That would work" Kazuo said

"I agree" Drexel said

"Well it's settled then we'll each search the three cities and hope for the best" Chaos said

"Wait a moment, how can I trust the two I'm not going with to not get drunk and remember the mission?" Mavis asked

"You can't, that's the fun" they responded in unison

"Alright we'll play a quick game of rock paper scissors, loser has to go with my sister and not have fun" Chaos said

"Hey!" Mavis exclaimed angrily

"One, Two, Three!" They said with both Kazuo and Chaos showing rock while Drexel played scissors

"No! Damn it now I have to be responsible" Drexel lamented

"Hey, I know how to have fun too you know!" Mavis exclaimed

"Yeah, but all your fun is kid friendly not my type of fun" Drexel muttered

"Well it's karma really, none of us were supposed to get drunk here but you did and now you can't get drunk! Alright I'll go to Crocus since I know that city like the back of my hand, Kazuo you got Era, Drexel and Mavis you get Oshibana town" Chaos said

"Where and when should we meet when we're done?" Kazuo asked

"Hmm, in five days we'll all meet at Balsam Village and then plan out our future course" Chaos said

They all agreed on the location and each went off their separate ways after saying good luck and Mavis making Chaos and Kazuo promise to not get drunk before finding the Dragon slayer. They each set off to their designated cities for the one raised by Acnologia. Chaos was the first to reach his designated city and began frequenting some of his trusted sources for this woman. However each one yielded the same result, there had been no news of a woman who matched his description of entering the city for the past few weeks let alone a Julia or Julie which surprised Chaos.

"Damn it all, well I guess I'll check tomorrow with my sources and see if anything is changed, maybe I managed to beat her here although I doubt it. While I'm here I think I'll pay my old mentor and his semi attractive niece while I'm here, then I'll hit the bars" Chaos said getting up and heading off to his mentor's house

Meanwhile Kazuo had made his way to Era and was now asking around for any woman who matched Julie's description, conveniently leaving out that she was trained by Acnologia. However each time he was told that nobody had seen a woman like that at all and they asked if it was possible for anyone to have pink hair.

"Oh well she's probably in another city I guess… which means it's okay that I go to the bar all I promised Mavis was that I'd try looking for her before I drank, so my conscience is clean" he thought

He went to the nearest bar that he could find, walked in, and took a seat near the bartender and ordered four glasses of brandy.

"Looks like you don't bother with the whole start slow thing do you?" a cloaked figure who was sitting next to Kazuo asked. Kazuo could tell it was a woman's voice but decided not to ask about why she was under a cloak.

"It's a symbolic gesture, to both mourn and honor three people I loved dearly" Kazuo answered

"Pardon if I ask, but who were they?" the figure said

"My best friend Wayne, my daughter Lynn and her husband Riley who I treated like my son. They were killed unfairly and now I bide my time and wait to gain revenge and put their souls to rest. Until I do so, I drink brandy for them to keep them calm and away from my dreams" Kazuo responded

"That sucks" the figure responded

"Well that's one way of putting it. Here's to them" Kazuo said as he drank all four glasses of the brandy and ordering a bottle of whiskey afterwards

Their conversation died down after that and a few minutes passed by before the figure next to him finished her drink, paid her tab, and got up to leave. Kazuo looked and for a brief moment saw just a bit of the woman's hair which was a deep pink color. He gave a quick smile at his good fortune; finished his drink, and left to follow this woman. He followed the figure at a distance away as they made their way through the cities, the figure then made a left turn to an alleyway where nobody was.

"Well looks like she knows I'm following her, this might be the dragon slayer after all" Kazuo thought turning into the alley as well

True to Kazuo's suspicion she had figured he was following her and went into the alleyway to confront Kazuo, she was waiting for him and her posture showed no fear whatsoever.

"Any reason why you followed me old man?" she asked

"Hey now I'm not that old young lady" he laughed "But I do have my reasons for following you"

"And they are?"

"Is your name Julie or Julia by any chance?" he asked

The figure went slightly stiff for a moment with surprise before she relaxed herself again "Julia, so?"

"Haha well looks like my luck is on the upswing. If I might ask, are you the same Julia who was trained by the legendary Dragon King Acnologia?" he asked

"So you're the one who's been asking around about me?" she responded quietly

"I'll take that as a yes then. I have a proposition for you young lady" he began

"What do you have in mind?" she asked

He explained the situation at hand and told her everything Chaos had told him about what the Council had done. He also told her about the others in the group who were already in the plot to bring down the Council before they unlocked the power of the ancient beings.

"That is quite a story you have old man" Julia responded

"It's all true and it would help if you would join our cause" Kazuo offered

"Hmm, but how do I know you guys have a chance to beat the Council. As good as I am five people aren't going to bring the Council down we wouldn't even get past the front gate and even after that there's the whole we need to kill the councilors who are all very powerful" She said

"Those are good points, but don't worry we do have a solid plan to defeat the Council so don't worry yourself about that. Besides I am one of the Ten Wizard Saints, two of the other wizards are powerful enough to become Saints themselves if they ever felt like it, and the other one well she's a special girl I can already tell that much about her" Kazuo responded

"Hmm, a Wizard Saint and you're mourning your loved one's loss, I'm guessing you're Kazuo former master of the Sabers." she asked

"You would be right" he responded

"Well that's cool and all, but I don't really trust your opinion on the other three so I'll have to decline your offer" she said moving past Kazuo

I will make know that I'm not lying about those three. The way to learn about someone if you don't trust them is to fight them then you can see their true nature in battle" he said

Julia paused after hearing this statement she thought about it for a few seconds before turning to face the Wizard Saint.

"Are you suggesting what I hope you're suggesting?" she asked her voice slightly eager

"Indeed young lady, we'll go to a place away from these people and fight, there you will see that I'm not lying about those three or our plans to crush the Council" he said seriously

Julia took her cloak off, letting her pink bangs fall in front of her eyes. She began cracking her knuckles, popping her neck, as smile grew on her face.

"A chance to fight the Thunder God himself huh? I'm all fired up!"


	6. Kazuo vs Julia

"How about here?" Julia asked eagerly

"No" Kazuo responded

"Here?"

"No"

"Here?"

"What? We're literally 10 feet away from a village a fight between us will kill everyone there! What part of in a secluded place did you not understand?" Kazuo exclaimed angrily

"Ugh! Why do we have to be secluded? I'm sure that between us we have enough restraint to not kill bystanders. Even if we do, it'd be their fault for watching us in the first place" Julia responded

Kazuo simply sighed in response, continued walking, and began tuning out Julia's suggestions for places to fight. He began wondering if bringing her to the team would do any good, she had a one-track mind and that track was fighting. He figured she might ignore any plan and just charge the front gate challenging anyone in sight. He supposed that once they fought all would be clear, granted he was resisting the urge to kill her just so she would be quiet. For the next ten minutes they walked and no matter how much Kazuo tried covering his ears Julia's cries to start the fight kept ringing in his ears, and he was pretty sure that it he could hear it in his mind too. They finally reached a place that Kazuo deemed secluded enough for them to fight with their full strength and not worry about bystanders.

"How about here?" Julia asked for what she thought was the thousandth time

"Yes!" Kazuo yelled loudly letting out all his annoyance

"Yeah! Alright let's do this Thunder God, show me what ya got!" Julia exclaimed happily and assuming a fighting stance

"Wait, before we begi-" Kazuo began

"Oh no you don't!" Julia yelled cutting him off

"What was I doing?" Kazuo asked flustterd

"I know exactly what's going on, it's what dad calls "mind games". It's used by opponents who are weaker than you and are trying to get an advantage by screwing with my mind, well I am not falling for that." Julia explained knowingly

"Wait, that wasn't what I was trying at all" Kazuo tried

"Oh no, you're just extending it old man. My dad always said 'if you can obliterate the upper portion of a person when they're playing mind games with you then by god do it Julia'. And that's exactly what I'm going to do" Julia said

At this she released her magic aura breaking apart the ground nearby and Kazuo was momentarily blinded by the light of her aura.

"_Roar of the Apocalypse Dragon!" _Julia said. She took a small breath and fired a large energy beam towards Kazuo.

"I was just going to warn her that I fight to kill so she should stop me if she's afraid, but I guess she understands" Kazuo said calmly staring at the fast approaching blast. "_Lightning Shield!"_ Kazuo said brining up a large electric circle in front of him.

The blast rammed into the shield, but the shield was able to absorb the blast leaving behind a large plume of smoke. Julia squinted to see if her roar had broken the shield, she was pleasantly surprised to see Kazuo standing unharmed.

"Oh, you look surprised young lady. Did you think I earned my Wizard Saint title by being weak?" Kazuo asked

"A bit surprised, like you said you got to fight someone to know how good they really are. I can tell that you at least have some fight in you which is good," she said licking her lips

For fifteen minutes Kazuo and Julia fought a heated battle with neither one being able to land a blow on the other one. No matter how many times Julia tried to overpower the Thunder God with her Apocalypse Dragon magic she couldn't even crack his shields. Yet Kazuo was never able to get Julia for her reckless offense as every counter attack he made Julia was able to get out of the way of his lightning blasts. They both stopped a good distance away from each other to take a moment to regroup and think of a new plan.

"Man this old man is good and he doesn't seem tired at all guess he earned his Wizard Saint title. But I need to think of something, overpowering him isn't working at all" she thought, what would dad do was her first thought although she quickly dismissed that idea as he would have won the fight by now. "Well what did dad recommend for me" she said reminiscing of her early days learning magic from her dad

"Julia, if someone ever challenges you to a fight… obliterate the upper portion of their body immediately!" Acnologia exclaimed to the small child in front of him

"But dad, what happens if that doesn't work?" she asked

"Umm, well then you try even harder to obliterate them oh and don't limit the obliteration to the upper portion of their body go for the lower half too" he responded

"Dad are there any other strategies that I need to know?" she asked

"Haha, my dear Julia with the techniques I've taught you there won't ever be a need for strategy! Hahahaha" Acnologia roared in laughter

"Damn it, I knew I should have pestered him more" Julia thought angrily

"Hmm she's deep in thought; perhaps I was too quick to judge her. She might be quick to get into a fight but she's clearly studied the martial arts seriously for a long time too" Kazuo thought

"Ahh this isn't good I've got nothing but charge straight at him and hope for the best. Wait how about from behind? No he'll probably see me trying to sneak behind him… damn it maybe this is why dad never taught me strategy it's too hard" Julia thought feverishly

"Time for me to go on the offensive then" Kazuo said

He charged lightning around him and used it to quickly propel himself towards Julia who was still trying to think of something.

"Wait I'm not ready yet!" Julia thought seeing Kazuo quickly closing the distance between them "Oh whatever like dad said just keep trying and you'll obliterate something"

She jumped over the flying Kazuo and sent another roar at him, but his lightning form made him significantly faster than he had been before. She tried again several times but each time Kazuo dodged easily, he began laughing as he saw Julia getting frustrated:

"What's wrong young lady you were so excited to fight me earlier but your aim just sucks" Kazuo said mockingly

"I'm going to destroy you once you sit still" Julia yelled back angrily

Kazuo quickly flew up to the air high above Julia's position and raised both his hands to the air. Suddenly the once bright day grew extremely dark and cloudy surprising Julia once more.

"_5 layer Atomic Blast" _Kazuo shouted

"Kind of a mouthful to say though" Julia observed although she was awed at what happened next.

Five magic circles each about a mile in diameter appeared in the sky right under Kazuo and directly over Julia. Kazuo gave a small grunt as large amounts of lightning began to gather around his hand forming large ball.

"Wait, he's finally sitting still for me which means he's also open; all I need to do is overpower that atomic whatever of his" Julia thought as she too began charging her magic power.

"_Atomic Blast_ activate" Kazuo shouted as he sent the ball through the magic circle under him, as the ball passed through each circle it grew in size and speed until it was as large as the magic circles it had gone through.

"You think that's scary, wait till you see this. _Secret Arts of the Apocalypse Dragon: Divine Cannon_" Julia said smiling while forming a circle with both her hands. The energy she had been charging gathered all around her and formed brace to keep her in place while a large magic circle formed in front of her hands.

"A risky move on her part, she's hoping that whatever she's doing is enough to break my _Atomic Blast_ and get me. Hmph well that's unlikely to happen on any part, I just hope it doesn't kill her." Kazuo thought confidently not noticing the magic circle appearing behind him

"Ha target's in place, no way he can dodge now!" Julia said as she fired her divine cannon while barely kept in place by the magic brace around her.

The cannon met the large circle head on but passed through the blast with little resistance creating large hole in the middle.

"What, how did it break through it that easily? Well the blast will still make it to her but that thing will kill me if I don't move" Kazuo thought "What!?" his attempt to escape was stopped as he realized he couldn't move from his place, he turned his head to see Julia's magic circle had activated and binded him to his spot.

"Ha take that old man, you're going to be dead soon just like I'm going to be when that lightning ball hits me… wait a minute" Julia exclaimed before realizing she hadn't thrown up a shield to protect herself from the _Atomic Blast_

Kazuo and Julia both brought their hands in front of their faces in a last ditch effort to protect themselves. The _Atomic blast _and _Divine Cannon _both arrived at the target and detonated around Julia and Kazuo. The explosions caused by both attacks were powerful and large enough to incinerate nearly everything it came into contact with. However after the smoke had cleared both Kazuo and Julia were still rooted in their respective places with their hands still in front of them and both were relatively unharmed.

"Whoa, I missed" they both muttered in shock

"At least I lived" they muttered in unison again

"Wait I missed!" They shouted once more in unison with the same level of anger in their voice

"What the hell happened?" Julia shouted at Kazuo

"How the hell should I know?" Kazuo responded in shock

"Excuse me" A voice said from far away

"What?" they shouted angrily as they both turned to see who it was

A girl was standing there with magic circles around her outstretched hands and both Julia and Kazuo noticed a magic shield around each of them that was the same element of the attack it had absorbed.

"What do you guys think you're doing? You could have easily killed each other if I wasn't passing by and felt that large amount of magic energy in this area. You guys are lucky that nobody else was around or they would be dead" she lectured

"Ah, sorry about that. But the seclusion thing was on purpose so that woman and I could have a fight with our full power" Kazuo explained with an embarrassed look on his face

"Alright then, but just be careful 2 guild wizards such as yourselves shouldn't fight to the death" the girl said

"Guild wizards?" Julia thought "I've never been in a guild in my life"

"Alright then we'll keep that in mind" Kazuo said again

The girl nodded before heading off leaving Kazuo and a shocked Julia on their own. Kazuo quietly floated back to the ground and began walking to Julia.

"Well then looks like we'll put our fight on hold" Kazuo said

"We'll just call it a draw old man" Julia responded

"Works for me. Although what did you learn from our battle?" he asked

"A lot old man, I can tell you weren't lying about those three you had mentioned and I can also tell that you really hate the Council for destroying your guild" Julia responded

"Indeed I do, so will you join us?" he asked

"After this fight, of course I will. I want to meet the others in the group and see if they're as strong as you say, I'm also really psyched up to fight the Council! Ah, I just want to fight the first councilor I see right now!" Julia shouted happily

"I wouldn't recommend that at all especially in your current state" Kazuo said trying to calm her down

"What do you mean? I know I used some magic but that fight fired me up, I feel like I can take on anyone right now!" Julia exclaimed happily "That reminds me though, you seemed awfully willing to listen to that girl just now, what gives?"

"Of course I was, the last thing we needed was to fight her" Kazuo responded

"You know that girl?" Julia asked

"Of course I do that was Hana, she is one of the Magic Councilors that governs Earthland. And that magic of hers is the reason both of us are alive" Kazuo responded

"Wait, she's one of the councilors?" Julia asked "Ah, wait she blocked both of our attacks on her own? What kind of magic lets her do that?" Julia asked

"It's _Highlander _magic and it lets her adapt and feed off of the magic of her opponent… essentially there isn't an opponent she can't kill"


	7. The Dark Wings

"Eh?" Julia managed to eke out to Kazuo

"Like I said, there isn't a person Hana can't kill. Her magic lets her adapt to all types of magic, even ones she hasn't seen before and then she can feed off of the magic to increase her strength to match her opponent's if need be" Kazuo explained

"Then how the hell is anyone supposed to beat her?" Julia asked

"There are always ways to beat someone, nobody's invincible you know" Kazuo said trying to calm Julia down

"Well as long we can bea-"

"But she's probably the closest thing to being invincible" Kazuo said laughing

Julia tried to come up with a response to the laughing old man but she decided to simply let it go and followed Kazuo back to the bar they had originally met in Era. They arrived back just in time for happy hour at the bar and they began to drink to their heart's content. Julia figured tha-

"Wait a minute Chaos" Lahar interrupted

"What?" both Chaos and Guran Doma said both no extremely annoyed at Lahar's interruptions

"Just wondering how you know everything that went on, it's almost like you were there with them the entire time" Lahar asked

"Look I might have snuck some viewing Lacrima onto the team while they weren't looking okay" Chaos answered quickly "Now back to the stor-"

"Wait that explains how you heard what they said and know what they did… but how were you able to hear their thoughts?" Lahar asked

"...I have my ways okay, but I can safely assure you that what I said they were thinking, they were most certainly thinking. I probably know more about what someone's thinking than they do, it's how you become a good assassin" Chaos answered

"Um okay then" Lahar answered not wanting to ask how Chaos would know what someone was thinking

"Let's see," Chaos said going back to his story

Julia figured that Kazuo wasn't concerned at all that Hana was close to being invincible so he must know a way of defeating her, or at least know somebody who could. Either way she admitted to wanting to meet the other members of the group that Kazuo had joined. She decided to ask Kazuo about the others in the group to get an idea of who she'd be working with.

"Hmm let's see there's the former assassin who now calls himself Chaos for god knows why, his little sister Mavis who has the most adorable hairstyle in the world, oh and another former assassin named Drexel. Now I'm pretty sure she and Chaos have some feelings for each other but they won't admit it though, kids right?" Kazuo said

"Umm, sure" Julia said not knowing why Kazuo even bothered with that last part

"I think you've met Drexel though she said something about you two fighting in the past which is why she recommended you to the group." Kazuo remembered as he finished his drink

"We did? Hmm let's see if I didn't obliterate the upper portion of her body then she was probably that annoying ice mage I met a while back," Julia said

"Annoying? I guess she played 'mind games' with you then?" Kazuo asked

"She did and she tried denying it just like you did old man. In fact a lot of people try playing mind games with me it's really annoying so I just start the fight and if they get killed well that means I outwitted them" Julia said proudly

"Umm I think your father gave you the wrong definition of mind games" Kazuo said trying to picture the other people she had killed after they tried reasoning with her

"What!? My father's an excellent teacher who taught me everything that was needed for me to become the strongest wizard in all of Earthland. Besides he decided to take care of me after my village was destroyed and my parents killed, so don't talk bad about him okay" Julia responded

"Alright then" Kazuo responded deciding to not continue the argument

"Well I'm ready to go when do I get to meet the rest of the squad?" Julia asked getting up and heading to the exit

"We're all going to meet up in Balsam Village in five days where we'll all take a break in the spas I presume before we decide what to do later." Kazuo said

"Five days? Who decided to wait that long just for us to regroup at a spa town?" Julia asked

"That was Chaos who planned that, although I don't think he expected any of us would find you this quickly so just bear with us." Kazuo answered

"Great five days stuck with a drunk old man" Julia muttered clearly annoyed at her circumstances

"Meanwhile Mavis and Drexel were searching for Julia in Oshibana Town not knowing that Kazuo had already found her" Chaos said suddenly shifting his story

"I must ask Chaos why didn't you guys use a communications lacrima, it would have sped up the process?" Guran asked

"Shut up, that's why," Chaos answered

Drexel and Mavis were sitting at a restaurant waiting for their dinner, it had been an unsuccessful hunt for Julia and both were tired from the walking. Although she was disappointed Drexel was more annoyed at the fact that she wasn't allowed to drink any alcohol with Mavis around. The girl was surprisingly good at denying Drexel alcohol at every place and never let her out of her sight. The waiter came to their table and asked them what they'd like to drink.

"Water for me and my sister-in law, she's pregnant you see so she can't drink any alcohol" Mavis said ignoring the death stare Drexel was giving her

The waiter wrote it down and walked off to get their drinks leaving the pair alone.

"You know if you're not going to let me drink could you at least come up with a better excuse than I'm pregnant, especially with your brother's child of all people?" Drexel asked still giving Mavis an evil look

"It's the one thing that people will never question and it's one that you can't possibly deny especially after I call you my sister-in law, if you try I'll just say you're nervous and aren't use to being sober so really there's no way you can win" Mavis answered her

"You're just evil" Drexel said

"Hush now my sister-in law or else we'll be getting unwanted attention" Mavis responded

Drexel started with a comeback but realized that Mavis was right; she was a bit impressed with Mavis' maturity and her solution to prevent Drexel from drinking. They ordered the food after the waiter came with their drinks and once the waiter left with their orders they set to talking about what to do about finding Julia.

"Well today was a failure" Mavis began

"Hmm, don't look at it like that kid you need to be patient. It's the same as being a good assassin, you're not going to get your target on the first day you're just going to have wait for the opportunity to get your kill" Drexel explained

"But we're not trying to kill her Drexel in fact it's not like we're operating in the shadows we're out in the light asking for her" Mavis said

"That might be our problem, she might not be too keen on getting found by us especially since she might still see me as an enemy" Drexel said

"Well then what are we supposed to do just hide? We only have five days to find her you know"

"I know what your brother planned, who knows someone might have found her I just wish your brother was smart enough to actually use a communications lacrima just so we wouldn't be worrying like this" Drexel said

"Well in my brother's defense neither you nor Kazuo suggested one either" Mavis responded

"That's true, I guess we were all eager to not be stuck with you that we forgot" Drexel responded

Mavis wanted to respond but was stopped by the arrival of their food so she could only give an annoyed look to Drexel before she dug into her dinner. They ate their food at a relaxed pace and talked about other things to keep their minds off of their mission for the time being. They paid their bill and got up to leave as they got to the door they were stopped by the waiter who had served them.

"You girls just came here today right?" the waiter asked

"Yeah, what of it?" Drexel asked

"Well you might not have heard but we've been having trouble with a dark guild that's moved in nearby, their mages are doing whatever they want and the guards aren't being that helpful so please do be careful when you're going back," the waiter warned

"Don't worry about us, we'll be fine" Drexel said confidently

"Well that's what a Council enforcement squad captain said before his squad was decimated. This guild is more powerful than most recognize, I hear they have a monster that's unbeatable" the waiter said

"We'll keep that in mind" Drexel said dismissively as she and Mavis walked out the door

"You didn't have to be that dismissive of him you know" Mavis said

"Oh please I'm not afraid of any dark guild, and I've beaten dozens of 'unbeatable' monsters before so I think I can handle one more. Besides taking on this guild might help pass the time before we get to go to the spas you know." Drexel responded

"Wait we're supposed to find that dragon slayer, not take on a guild!" Mavis protested

"Think of all the good we'll do for these people, you heard the waiter that guild pretty much owns the streets now and the people can't walk without fear of being attacked. You and I have the power to change that for these people, besides I need some form of entertainment and killing these guys might fill that void drinking has left" Drexel said trying to convince Mavis

"Hmm, well besides that last part about voids you are right and who knows maybe my brother or Kazuo have already found Julia" Mavis said

"Exactly, and who knows maybe this guild knows something about Julia we could ask their master while threatening him" Drexel said

As they walked back to their hotel Drexel noticed several shadowy figures following them, she decided not to warn Mavis as to let these figures think they had the advantage. They turned the corner and noticed about six figures blocking their path with various weapons drawn out. Drexel took a quick look behind her and saw that another five had taken position to prevent their escape. Mavis let out a sign as she started to feel bad for these figures who were trying to mug them, she figured if Drexel was as strong as her brother then this fight would be extremely brief. One of the figures took a step forward; she was obviously the squad captain or at least the most eager to begin and confronted them.

"Well well boys and girls look who we got here, two nice young girls who got lost now it wouldn't do our conscience good to let you girls stay lost now would it?" she began, at this the other figures all started laughing

"We're good people and we'll give you directions, of course it will cost you a bit" the figure said

"Will it now? But what if we know where we're going?" Drexel asked "then what?"

"Then things will have to get rough now I know you wouldn't that to happen for that adorable little girl over there, right?" the figure responded

"Oh you folks should be more worried about yourselves I mean honestly bringing eleven people to bring me down, what were you thinking? This girl's brother can barely stand up to me and it takes at least a hundred mages of your power levels to make him break a sweat. Now how do you think you boys and girls will last long against me let alone take my money?" Drexel asked now getting into a battle position

"So that's how it's going to be huh? We were just going to take your money; well we'll just have to take it off of your bodies then. Charge!" the figure ordered

Mavis quickly cast her light armor on herself although that was just to make sure she didn't get hit accidently by Drexel. Drexel quickly cast an _ice lance _barrage to the figures blocking their exit; three of the figures were hit and were killed instantly while the other two barely managed to get out of the way. Drexel used her other hand to cast an _ice wall _in front of her and Mavis blocking the others from reaching them. She gave an evil smile to the two figures cowering a few meters off cut off from their comrades; they immediately turned and tried running away.

"Oh no you don't you guys aren't getting out of this easily, _ice chain"_ she said extending both arms and sending large ice chains that quickly caught the figures

She brought them closer to her and then cast _ice blades_ covering her arms with blades of ice and making two long swords where her hands were. Mavis turned away as Drexel stabbed both the figures multiple times to ensure their deaths, the figures on the other side were trying to break the ice wall but to no avail. Drexel turned around both her blades covered in blood and walked towards the wall while deactivating the blades she took a quick look at Mavis who had a downcast face.

"Honestly you think her brother would have prepared her for the inevitable killing going that would happen sooner or later" she thought to herself.

She took a quick measure of the wall and where the other figures would be. With this she jumped to the top of the wall and landed gracefully on the top and looked down on the figures still trying to break the wall down. She waited a bit for both raising both her hands to the sky and a magic circle appeared over her hands.

"_Ice meteor!" _she said as a large meteor was formed above her

She hurled the meteor at the figures below and watched with a smile as they noticed all too late that the meteor was approaching them and tried running. Only the female figure who had spoken earlier was able to avoid the worst of the meteor as the others were all crushed by the meteor ending their lives. Drexel jumped down and deactivated the wall to let Mavis through; she walked to the figure who was trying to crawl away.

"Where do you think you're going?" she asked mockingly to the figure crawling away

She walked ahead of the figure and picked her up roughly and smashed her into the nearby wall.

"Please don't kill me! I'm sorry I won't do this anymore honest!" the girl pleaded

"Oh don't worry; killing you is far from my list of priorities right now young lady. I just want some information and then I'll let you go a fair deal in my opinion" Drexel said

"Okay, okay what do you want to know?" the girl asked

"Your guild seems to be the ones in control of this town right now and I'm hearing now that you guys terrorize this place. That just seems wrong to me, so tell me where you guys are based" Drexel said

"No I can't, if I do that then my master will have me killed!" the girl responded

"And if you don't tell me now I'll make sure you wished your master killed you just to end your suffering" Drexel replied harshly

"Umm, if I may interrupt the interrogation Drexel but I don't think your way is going to get her to talk" Mavis piped up getting over the sight of the bodies

"What makes you think she'll respond to you?" Drexel asked

"Just watch. Now I know you're clearly afraid of your master but I'll be honest and tell you that Drexel here is a much more terrifying person. I however am a reasonable person if only a teenager and have a solution that works out for all of us, we get our intel and you get to be safe." Mavis said calmly

"I'm listening" the girl responded still afraid of what Drexel would do

"If you tell us where your base is located we promise to not kill you. When you tell us where the base is we'll let you go and then you can go to your master and tell him you were attacked by the guards so he won't kill you for giving up intel to us because he'll never know. We'd still have to follow you to make sure you were telling the truth, does that work out?" Mavis offered

"But what if you guys are caught? Then I'll be killed anyway!" the girl exclaimed

"Sounds to me like that's your best chance to get out of this alive. If you agree to this then we'll give you a day to leave this city and then we'll bring down the guild and then you'll never have to worry about this again, of course you'll have to join a legitimate guild to continue your living." Drexel said

"Alright, Alright I get it, you promise to not attack until after I leave?" the girl asked

"Yes we do, now if you'll be so kind as to tell us where the base is" Mavis said calmly

"Sure we're based just out of the town, a few hundred meters away from the eastern entrance to the city. Our base is protected by several magic barriers to hide it and protect it from bombardment so you'd have to get inside to bring the guild down" the figure said

"Alright, now get going to your base I'll be following you in the shadows, lead me the wrong way and it'll be your life got it?" Drexel said

"Yes, and one more thing even if you can kill mages like me there is one of us that you'll never defeat I've never seen magic like his" the figure said

"I'll deal with him when I get to him now move!" Drexel ordered "Mavis you go back to the hotel and wait for me there"

Mavis nodded and watched as Drexel let the girl go, the girl took a bit to get oriented and began walking away from them as Drexel melded into the shadows and followed the girl quietly. Mavis headed back to the hotel without encountering any more resistance and checked back into their room, she took a quick shower, changed into her pajamas, and waited for Drexel to return.

Meanwhile the figure was running towards the base aware that Drexel was following her although she wasn't able to see Drexel at all, but she could feel that her life was still in danger. She exited the town and made her way to their hidden base. Drexel waited for the girl to open a path through the barriers and followed her in quickly, they passed sign that gave the title of the guild the "_Dark Wings"_ not exactly original to Drexel but she didn't care. The girl slowed to a walk as she was out of breath and made her way to the entrance, Drexel waited for a few seconds to check for any guards and made her way to one of the windows to spy on the meeting. The base itself was fairly unimpressive and simple with only about thirty mages in total inside the base. The girl walked through demanding to see the master of the guild, the guard complied and the master was called.

"Hmm let's see what this master looks like, perhaps he's the monster I'm going to kill later" Drexel thought

The master walked in flanked by a cloaked figure that looked around briefly before nodding to the master.

"Well what is it Lily? Why do you want to see me so bad? And where the hell are the rest of your squad?" the master asked

"We were ambushed by a large group of guards, by the time I was able to recover from the initial assault I was the only one left. It was hell for me just to breakthrough and get out, no way I could have taken them out on my own." She lied

"They didn't follow you?" the cloaked figure asked

"I made sure they didn't follow me" she responded

"Hmm maybe that cloaked figure is the "monster" but he doesn't seem that dangerous to me" Drexel thought

"Hmm, well this is news those guards have more balls than I thought if they're ambushing our squads now. We'll have to show them a brutal lesson tomorrow then, a price for thinking they can beat us" the master declared

The cloaked figure looked distracted and began scanning the windows as he felt someone was watching. He finally settled on the place where Drexel was but nobody was there, suddenly he sprinted outside leaving everyone bewildered to his actions. When he made it out he managed to get a glimpse of Drexel who quickly realized that this figure was more dangerous than she originally thought and she made it out before he was able to figure out which direction she was headed. He came back into the building and stormed towards Lily who was frozen in fear at the approaching figure.

"You weren't followed huh? Then who the hell was that woman?" the cloaked figure yelled

"Kyro what are you talking about" the master asked bewildered

"I sensed that someone was watching our meeting and when I ran outside I saw the woman running away, she was probably a spy the guards sent or something else" he explained "And Lily here led her right to us!" he finished

"I thought I wasn't followed I-I did everything I could" Lily stammered

"Did you now, I've been suspicious of your story since you started it, no way the guards were organized enough for an ambush and even then you were a captain so you should have known if someone was following you. You've betrayed us haven't you and are trying to convince us nothing is going on and then skipping town before they attack huh?" Kyro said loudly his cloak falling off revealing his medium length red hair that was partitioned to cover one of his red eyes.

"Kyro I swear that I wouldn't betray the _Dark Wings_" Lily exclaimed

"Bullshit" Kyro said in response

He extended one of his arms towards the floor and a magic circle appeared at the end of it, suddenly the floor the circle was pointed at began to move towards Kyro's arm enveloping it entirely and formed a solid rock arm. Lily tried running away but Kyro grabbed her hair with his other arm, turned her around and punched hard towards her face. Her blood splattered over his face which brought a crazed smile to his face as his rock arm dissipated leaving his normal arm still covered with her blood.

"Well then, our traitor has been taken care of but I fear the enemy will be making their move soon" Kyro said licking the blood off his hand.

"Well then we'll be preparing for their assault soon we'll post a watch and form our plan tomorrow. They might not attack tonight since they know we've figured out their plan so they'll have to regroup giving us time to think I guess." The master ordered "Oh and Kyro, I'm glad to have such an able mage at my side I know that whatever happens you'll defeat our enemies"

"I just hope that spy comes back, I've never met one who was able to stay away from my _Gaze of the Colossus_ for that long." Kyro said excitedly

"Don't worry Kyro you'll get your chance soon enough" the master responded

"I sure hope I do, and then I'll get to spill her blood over the floor. They don't call me Kyro Scarlet for nothing you know"


	8. Rallying Call

Drexel kept running until she was sure that nobody was following her; she paused for a quick breather before she began making a false trail for any Dark Wings members sent to follow her if there would be any. After she was done she was careful to not carelessly lead the mages back to where she and Mavis was staying, although her mind was still concerned with the cloaked figure who had found her out.

"How the hell did he do that? There's no way I was making myself known I hid myself well and gave off no magic trace, hell even Chaos has trouble finding me when I do that so how'd some dark guild mage find me? It was like he could see through the wall I was behind… if so then attacking by surprise will be sort of difficult if he's on watch" Drexel thought now trying to formulate a way to attack the guild

Mavis was lying down under the covers as she was cold although now she struggled with staying awake to greet Drexel when or if she ever came back. Mavis was thinking of every possible reason that Drexel was taking so long to get back but her mind only seemed to settle on two distinct options

"Either she's ran into some sort of trouble that's delaying her, or more likely this was all an elaborate ruse for her to ditch me so she could drink again… yeah it's probably that" Mavs sighed to herself.

She gave a bit of a jump when the door to their room was opened revealing Drexel who stepped inside, closed the door, walked right to her bed, before falling on her bed and giving a quick good night to Mavis.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa you don't get to come in this late without some sort of explanation as to why you're so late. What happened anyway you look tired as hell? Mavis asked slightly annoyed

"Now how'd you figure that Sherlock" Drexel replied without changing her position at all

"You know what I mean also what happened to that Lily, did they buy her explanation?" Mavis asked

"Lily? Oh she's dead one of the mages figured out she was lying and splattered her face in about twelve different directions" Drexel said frankly

"Oh…" Mavis said trailing off sadly

"You know you're awfully sympathetic to someone who tried mugging us earlier" Drexel muttered

"That's different back then…" Mavis said

"I was going to kill her but she got out of the way in time, heck I was thinking about killing her after she explained things to her guild just to make sure she wouldn't have second thoughts. I hate to say this to you because I think your brother should be the one to do this seeing that he brought you with us, but there's going to be a lot of killing going on. This isn't some nice little story where the bad guys can be redeemed there won't be any redemption, no happy endings for the enemy, just death" Drexel said with a hard tone

"But.." Mavs began

"No buts kid you're going to have to get used to it and eventually you might have to kill someone in order to help us out or save yourself, got it? Drexel asked finishing her lecture

"Yeah I got it" Mavis muttered quietly before lying down on her pillow and turning away from Drexel

Drexel gave a deep sigh after she was sure Mavis had gone to sleep, she felt bad that she had to lecture Mavis about getting used to killing people after all the girl was barely thirteen. Granted she herself was around Mavis' age when she got her first kill but then again it probably isn't normal for teenagers to already be killing people let alone becoming assassins. Drexel eventually drifted off to sleep after thinking about how they were going to defeat the _Dark Wings_ and free the town. However her sleep turned into a nightmare where the cloaked figure she had seen hunted her and no matter how hard she fought or ran he always caught her and at the end raised his hand to kill her.

"Shit!" Drexel exclaimed getting up drenched in sweat while startling Mavis

"Are we under attack? Don't worry commander I won't let the enemy break through our lines they won't get past me," Mavis muttered dreamily

Drexel gave a curious look at Mavis temporarily forgetting about her nightmare. She gave a small smile at the girl's interesting dream; she then sighed and thought about her own nightmare.

"He was just able to see me through a wall, that doesn't mean I can't beat him just that he can see me through a wall." Drexel reasoned to herself, but try as she might she couldn't shake the feeling that maybe this figure was actually a match for her.

Drexel wasn't able to go back to sleep as her mind was occupied on that cloaked figure and she still wondered how she could beat him; she hadn't seen his magic yet couldn't shake the idea that he was quite dangerous. It was early in the morning before Mavis finally woke up from whatever dream she was having, and apparently it ended well for whatever side she was on.

"Nothing like total victory to get the morning started" Mavis declared enthusiastically

"Well at least one of us had a good night" Drexel said as she was making herself some coffee

"What do you mean?" Mavis asked

"I saw someone who I presumed was the monster that people kept talking about yesterday, I don't know how but he was able to find out where I was hiding even though I did my best to keep my presence hidden. In that moment I sensed just how dangerous he was and I've been thinking that maybe he's a match for me" Drexel said

"Okay" Mavis replied nonchalantly as she changed into her dress

"That's it? Just okay no support, no hey Drexel don't worry you're unbeatable?" Drexel asked somewhat annoyed

"Now why would I say that? I don't know this other person you're talking about so for all I know you're right about him being a match for you, it'd be wrong of me say that you would win just to make you feel better" Mavis explained

"Dammit, your brother taught you that didn't he?" Drexel asked

"Yep" Mavis replied happily

"Whatever" Drexel said

"So what should we do about challenging this guild? If there's one person who can match you that means I'd be the one who would have to defeat the other members and I doubt I can do that" Mavis said

"Yeah I'm pretty sure you'd end up dead in that situation which wouldn't sit right by your brother I'm sure. Hmm well we could always call on the guard to do something although they don't look like they have the balls to do much about these Dark Wings as they pretty much let them take control of the town to begin with." Drexel said

"Well we could do a joint attack, but I think you and I would be the only ones to do much damage. Those dark mages would beat the guards without much effort because they can use magic and the guards don't seem to know how to deal with that" Mavis suggested

"Ah, that's it! We'll do a joint attack; it doesn't matter that the guards won't last that long against the mages. As long as they hold them off long enough for you and I to take out that cloaked figure and the master of the guild then those other mages would lose their two most valuable members and would probably surrender" Drexel remarked

"Wait, what about the guards? Those mages aren't bound to show them any mercy for attacking them it would be wrong of us to let them attack; they'd be walking to their deaths!" Mavis objected

"Look kid, those guards already failed at their main job when they let the Dark Wings take over the town and do whatever they want to the people, this would be them making up for their past failures" Drexel replied

Mavis wanted to say something but she wasn't really in the mood for another lecture from Drexel about death, she also knew that her objections would amount to nothing as Drexel was completely fine with sacrificing a few of the guards. They first asked for directions from some of the townspeople to the command center for the guards of the town. They walked to the center of the town where the command center was, although they couldn't tell by looking at it. The building had been defaced with the Dark Wings symbols and other sayings that were quite derogatory to the guards.

"Well at least this guild knows how to keep a town under their control, make people think that there's nothing they can do especially when the guards are at their mercy" Drexel said complimenting the guild's actions.

They walked in to the center and Mavis was all in all quite disappointed with the way the center was being run. Apparently the Dark Wings had also vandalized the inside of the building too and quite recently in fact as the guards were still trying to repair the building, organize the papers that were still strewn about the floor, and get rid of the Dark Wing markers.

"Drexel are you sure these guys are in any shape to help us out?" Mavis asked

"Don't worry kid, at best these guys might surprise us and if they don't then they're at least meat shields" Drexel answered while walking to the receptionist

"Excuse me, my friend and I noticed how much uh… trouble you guards were having with the local Dark Guild here and we'd like to offer our assistance" Drexel offered

"Listen lady, we have enough trouble as it is with the Dark Wings the last thing we need is a teenager and some random lady getting killed because they thought they could do something" the receptionist said dismissively

"What was that?" Drexel said picking the unfortunate receptionist from his seat and into the air. "You wanna repeat what you just said?" Drexel asked menacingly

"Please let me down or I'll have to call the rest of the guards to escort you and your friend out of here" the receptionist replied calmly

This response only caused Drexel to violently shake the receptionist around as she demanded he recant his initial statement, although the receptionist still had no change in expression. Eventually the rest of the guards were drawn by the ruckus and managed to wrestle an angry Drexel away from the receptionist who sat back down at his desk like nothing had happened. At this point Mavis decided it was time for her to once again try and salvage the situation diplomatically.

"Excuse me sir, I know that you might be a bit… mad at my friend over there for picking you up and violently shaking you around perhaps causing some brain damage that might not become apparent till later in life" Mavis began

"If it's about assistance I'll repeat what I said to your friend as well, the last thing we need to deal with are civilians getting themselves killed on our watch" the receptionist repeated

"Ha, like you guys have done a good job protecting the civilians in the first place" Drexel yelled out as she tried breaking free from the guards.

"Ignore her. Anyway what she didn't tell you is that we're two capable mages that would be a big boost in your efforts to get rid of the guild and give the citizens here peace of mind" Mavis said quite eloquently

"That was pretty eloquent kid I'll give you that, but the last time someone promised me that I was sent nothing but his head and a note that said nice try" a voice said

They all looked to see who made the remark; sitting on a chair was a young woman who looked more tired than a girl her age should look. She clearly hadn't slept much recently and she looked ready to doze off at any minute. She had black hair that was a bit messy, blue eyes with wrinkles around it due to stress and fatigue, and was at around average height. She seemed like an average girl but the guards seemed to have an air of respect for her and even Drexel momentarily stopped her efforts to escape the guards to take notice of the woman.

"Who are you?" Mavis asked curiously

"I'm the acting Captain right now, Jenna Stevenson's my name" Jenna responded

"Acting captain? What happened to the normal captain" Drexel asked

"He got killed when those Dark Wings came in, that monster of theirs ripped his way through our forces and then he killed the captain. After that there wasn't much we could do against them; morale was low and frankly after seeing what that monster did well…" Jenna answered

"I see, well if it makes you feel better we know where the Dark Wings base is" Mavis said trying to console Jenna

"That's great, sadly as long as they have that monster of theirs it doesn't do us any good" Jenna responded

"Did you guys try alerting the Council or putting out jobs for other guilds?" Drexel asked as she had become calmer since Jenna made her presence known

"We're not a rich town so frankly we can't offer much of a reward so most high caliber mages won't do this quest, the low caliber ones who would come would probably get destroyed."

"The Council?"

"They sent an enforcement squad led by one confident captain, his head was the one I spoke of earlier" Jenna responded candidly

"Well I may not be much of a threat to beat the monster but I know for a fact that my friend over there can beat her" Mavis said pointing at Drexel

"Oh, what makes you say that?" Jenna asked

"Well I am the one who wrecked ten mages who tried mugging us yesterday without much effort on my part, and I was able to avoid that monster when he tried going after me that night too" Drexel responded

"Avoiding is one thing fighting is another thing entirely" the captain responded

"I'll give you that by I'll just say that I've faced strong people before and I've never been beaten this guy won't be anything different" Drexel said confidently even though she still had doubts about winning

"So you two were the ones who did all that damage? Impressive I'll say that much hmm…. You might have what it takes to beat these guys" Jenna said her brows furrowed as she thought about it

"Well then how about an alliance between us, it would be very difficult for Drexel and I to take on the guild on our own, but with support from the guards Drexel could focus solely on their monster while I would help you guys take out the other mages" Mavis offered

"As much as I'm against children fighting battles for me I'm not in that great of a position right now to be picky so I accept. We'll need to think about what our strategy will be" Jenna said

"Simple enough, Mavis and I will charge though and tear an entrance through their barriers and defense and then you guys charge in to distract them while I fight their monster!" Drexel proposed confidently

"What? Drexel that sounds well really stupid" Mavis retorted

"Oh please kid you got to learn to keep it simple sometimes, not everything requires great strategy especially when this battle rests on either me or their monster winning" Drexel replied

Mavis thought about it briefly and realized that Drexel was right, as much as Mavis and the guards would be necessary to distract the other mages the battle rested on Drexel's shoulder. Jenna and her guards agreed on the plan as well realizing that this was probably their last chance to gain freedom from the Dark Wings. The station abandoned the cleaning up process and was filled with activity as guards began preparing for the assault that would occur later that night. Mavis was helping with the coordination as Drexel sat alone deep in thought about her upcoming battle. She was too deep in thought to notice that Kyro Scarlet had been observing the guard station and was now fixated on her.

"I can't wait to meet you in battle my little ice mage" he said with a smile


	9. Drexel vs Kyro

Kyro knew that the attack would occur at night or the next day at worst although he was praying that the attack would happen tonight. He took his time making his way back to the guild headquarters stopping several times along the way to look at shops although he never bought anything. While walking he began thinking about his life and what battles the future would hold for him. He was frankly quite bored with his life, being the "monster" of the Dark Wings lost its luster pretty quickly, he thought it would have attracted strong people to kill but not many showed up. The enforcement captain the Council sent had some fight in him but Kyro was never in danger of losing his life. This ice mage though intrigued him in a way many could not; she was good at hiding, could react quickly, and he certainly loved her confidence.

"Ah I really should learn to lower my expectations of people as I end up getting disappointed every time. Still though I can't help but feel this one is different, I can't remember the last time I used my full power in a battle and I certainly hope I get to do so against her." Kyro thought to himself as he made his way out of the city

He walked down the path towards his guild and quickly bypassed the barriers that had been strengthened since Lily had betrayed them. He finally entered the building where the activity had picked up immensely; mages were running back and forth trying to fortify the place as quickly as possible. He made his way to the Master's office which overnight had been changed into a war room. He waited for the master to go over the plans with the remaining captains of the guild; Kyro himself didn't care as he knew that the battle rested on his actions as they always did. Finally the master had finished his long winded meeting which had nearly brought Kyro to sleep, the squad captains left leaving the two alone.

"Master Zachary, are you done?" Kyro asked

"Yes of course Kyro, so what did you find out?" Zachary asked

"Oh nothing much really the guards are going to attack either tonight or tomorrow led by that spy I saw yesterday and what appears to be a teenager with an adorable hair style." Kyro responded with a disinterested tone

"Umm okay" Zachary responded not sure why Kyro bothered with the teenager's hair "so which is it, today or tomorrow because it is important to know when they're attacking" he asked

"Hmm? Oh I'm not sure I kind of stopped paying attention to what the others were saying as the ice mage was really the only one who interested me" Kyro said

"Damn it Kyro this is important! The future of the Dark Wings is at stake here and we need to know as much as we can about the enemy's plans!" Zachary yelled

"Watch your tone Zach and remember who you're talking to. Without me you guys would have been crushed long ago by any competent mage, Council squad, or even just a bunch of guards. I am the Dark Wings… you're just a bunch of pests who follow me" Kyro said with a tint of anger in his voice

Zachary knew better than to get on Kyro's bad side as that tended to escalate quickly into violence, he quickly tried to diffuse Kyro's anger.

"You're right Kyro and I'm sorry for snapping like that it's just that I'm stressed out a bit that's all" Zachary said calmly

"Whatever" Kyro said leaving the room

"He knows I can't do anything to control him, he could easily kill me if he ever felt like it, and he knows I need him at the same time so I can't simply dispose of him. This attack is the last thing I need to deal with right now" Zachary thought to himself

"Wait, wait, wait Chaos this doesn't make sense" Lahar interrupted once more

"What!?" Chaos said exasperatedly as he tried giving Lahar another death stare

"Okay I get how you were able to know what the rest of your team was saying and thinking to a degree, but how the hell do you know what anyone else is saying and thinking?" Lahar asked with a confused look

"Does it matter Lahar this is an experienced assassin who's also most likely insane, the fact that he knows with certainty about what others are saying means he's probably bugged the world with lacrima" Guran answered

"Not insane just paranoid and I like to know what's happening in the world it's actually pretty entertaining. Besides it keeps me informed and lets me plan out all my actions" Chaos responded

"Wait a minute; did you already know where Julia was to begin with? Did you also send Drexel to Oshibana because you knew she would act as she's doing right now?" Lahar asked now more suspicious of Chaos

"Back to the story" Chaos said ignoring Lahar completely

Kyro waited at the center of the building as he was praying to whatever god that would listen to him to make sure the attack happened tonight. As he finished his prayer he noticed that the sun was setting and it would only be a matter of time if the guards would attack tonight. He began to look over the guild's defense: several barriers had been placed since he had returned although he figured they could be destroyed easily, mages were patrolling the walls, and several were in two guard towers that had been formed watching for attacks.

"So it begins" Kyro said as he sensed the barriers being destroyed one by one

The rest of the Dark Wings assumed defensive positions and waited for the attackers to show themselves. Suddenly two ice cannonballs flew from the night into the two towers bringing them down instantly and taking out the unfortunate mages who were in the towers. Several mages responded by firing dark beams into the night sky where the cannonballs came from, however all were stopped by an ice wall that was formed. A magic circle then appeared on the wall and out of the circle appeared a large dragon made of ice, the dragon charged into the walls breaking them apart and killing most of the mages on the wall. The attack also opened a large hole in the wall where the surviving members of the Dark Wings converged on.

"Hmm only twenty of us left this might be the end of the Dark Wings as we know it" Kyro mused as he watched the battle ensue in front of him. "Still that ice mage is certainly impressive I do hope she hasn't tired herself out already" he said smiling

A loud roar was heard as the guards now began to amass in front of the building numbering at thirty five; at the head of the group was acting captain Stevenson holding two spears in her right hand, a long sword strapped to her back, was wearing light leather armor that gave her protection without sacrificing mobility, and around that was glowing _light armor_ that Mavis had casted on the captain and the rest of the guards to give them protection from the Dark Wings' magical attacks.

"Hmm for a bunch of non-mages they certainly look prepared and determined to beat us that'll certainly make it more entertaining when I kill them" Kyro thought to himself

"We fight to take back our city from these bastards who think they can do whatever they want, kill them all!" the captain yelled as she led the charge

The guards began their charge blocking the Dark Wings attacks with their shields and _light armor_; as they got around twenty feet away from the hole in the building Jenna threw her first spear which flew though the night air impaling one of the dark mages killing him instantly. She ducked and dodged the _dark beams_ that were flying at her with ease, as she flipped over another beam she aimed her second spear at the seated Kyro who was watching her with some interest. The spear was sent flying and it made its way towards Kyro's eye; however Kyro grabbed the spear inches before it would hit his eye. He deftly flipped the spear so he was grasping the handle and threw it back at the guards hitting one in the eye.

"An eye for an eye like I always say" he said while silently congratulating himself on the dark pun

Finally the guards reached the hole and jumped in being met by the Dark Wings defenders who knew what the stakes were. A large melee ensued with both sides fighting ferociously, no prisoners were taken as each side fought to the death. Kyro still hadn't moved from his seat as he was waiting for Drexel to make her appearance, suddenly _ice lances_ were headed his way forcing him to flip over the agilely landing on his feet. He squinted to see Drexel with one arm outstretched staring at him with cold eyes, with a crazed smile on his face Kyro sprinted outside to meet her in combat.

"Ah, this is it! Please don't disappoint me ice mage I want to enjoy killing you!" Kyro yelled at Drexel who gave no response

As he made his way to Drexel he suddenly realized another mage's presence nearby and was forced to contort his body in a way he didn't know he could to dodge several _light blasts_. He turned briefly to see Mavis firing more blasts at him which he began dodging with grace, he moved quickly to take her out.

"_Colossal stomp" _as he jumped into the air before landing on the ground hard causing large tremors to move throughout the earth.

The tremors caused Mavis to lose her balance and she fell to the ground hard. As she tried to recover Kyro had already covered the distance between them and formed the same _Colossal Arm_ he had used to kill Lily and brought it down towards Mavis. He hit the ground hard although he realized that he didn't make contact with the girl, he gave an annoyed sound as he noticed Drexel holding Mavis a loft giving him that same hard look.

"You did well… okay kid, you distracted him but you almost got yourself killed" Drexel said somewhat approvingly

"It's not my fault, how was I supposed to know he could create earthquakes by jumping up and down?" Mavis replied somewhat annoyed

"You didn't know but now I know so it's all good kid. Why don't you go help out the guards over there and leave this freak to me?" Drexel said dropping Mavis to the ground

Mavis nodded and ran off to join the guards leaving Drexel and Kyro alone to fight it out. Kyro began stretching his arms and the rest of his body all the while smiling at Drexel who hadn't moved at all. Kyro finally took a fighting stance and motioned for Drexel to begin the fight. Suddenly Drexel burst forward stopping in front of a surprised Kyro and began hitting him with a flurry of kicks and quick punches. She tried a spin kick to finish her combo but Kyro had now recovered from the initial flurry, ducked the kick, and then gave Drexel a hard punch to the ribs, the force of the blow knocked Drexel back five feet.

"If you honestly think you can beat me without magic then I think you've given yourself more credit than you deserve" Kyro said mockingly

"Well in my defense you weren't taking me that serious either so I thought I'd surprise you, which I did to a degree" Drexel replied with a smile

"Well then how about you get serious because you'll need to be if you hope to survive against me ice mage. In return I'll show you my full power and make sure there won't be any more doubts about my focus" Kyro responded releasing his full magical aura

"Oh that's quite impressive guess I really should take you seriously" Drexel commented as she herself released her aura

The combined auras of the two began breaking apart the earth that was around them and causing a momentary pause in the battle between the guards and the dark mages as both sides were awed at the sheer magnitude of power released. Both Kyro and Drexel charged at each other and attacked each other at speeds that the human eye couldn't follow. Neither one could even land a small hit on the other, Drexel was waiting for a small opening in Kyro's defenses to finish him off with a quick ice spell however his defenses were perfect. Kyro then separated himself and pointed both of his arms to the ground, magic circles appeared, and the earth began covering his arms and forming two solid earth arms.

"This is the first time in a while I've needed to cover both my arms" he told Drexel

"Oh that's great, I feel so special" Drexel responded sarcastically

Kyro charged at her and started throwing punches at her, Drexel was surprised at how quickly the punches came it seemed that even with the added weight his speed wasn't affected at all. She flipped away from Kyro's flurry and aimed an _ice lance _and _ice tiger_ at him with her hands; however Kyro used one arm to protect himself from the lances and crushed the tiger with his other arm. Drexel was undaunted at the failure of her attacks and adjusted her strategy quickly; she first cast her _ice wasteland_ to turn the terrain around them to ice to prevent Kyro from getting more earth, she then began casting her heavy ice spells to break Kyro's earth arms and end the battle quickly. She sent a flurry of _ice axes, lances, _and different _ice animals_ to force Kyro into a defensive position where he could only block the endless flurry of attacks. Finally his earth arms broke off and he was surprised to find that he couldn't use the ice around him to form new arms.

"I've got you know 'monster', _double ice halberd!_" Drexel said sending two large ice halberds at the defenseless Kyro

The halberds hit Kyro hard and drew blood from the shocked mage while also sending him high into the air where he landed with a loud thump on the ground. Drexel took a few moments to catch her breath as the battle had tired her to an extent, when she was done she began walking over to where Kyro's body had fallen to inspect his body.

"Rule 1 of battle, always make sure your opponent is dead" Drexel thought to herself as she walked onwards

As she made her way closer to Kyro's body she began inspecting it; Kyro certainly looked dead as his body wasn't moving and he wasn't breathing as far as she could tell but she had this strange feeling she couldn't shake. Suddenly Kyro opened his eyes, gave a wide smile to the surprised Drexel and kipped up like nothing had happened to him.

"Ah that was a fun ride it reminds me of those amusement park rides that I used to look at from a far because my parents couldn't afford to let me ride them, so thanks for fulfilling one of my dreams" Kyro told her happily "Anyway I must say this battle has brought me lots of pleasure and you've proved yourself to be one hell of a fighter but I must end this now" Kyro said now growing serious

"What?" Drexel asked confused and now somewhat unsure of her ability to win this battle

Kyro closed his eyes for a second and released even more magic power than he originally had and a large magic circle appeared under him. Drexel wasn't going to stand still and watch with her mouth agape though and she quickly tried sending a flurry of ice spells at Kyro, but all her attacks were broken apart when they reached the circle. The _ice wasteland_ that she had casted earlier to cover the earth was now being broken apart underneath as the earth under it began making its way to Kyro's outstretched arms. Instead of stopping at his shoulder the earth kept moving now enveloping his entire body and formed layers upon layers of solid earth. Kyro sent a flurry of earth at Drexel who couldn't form an _ice wall _in time to block the attacks sending her flying right into an _ice net _she had created to catch her. She looked onward with a mixture of surprise and what oddly felt like fear as Kyro was now over twelve feet tall covered with earth that had been further strengthened by his magic forming a near impenetrable armor, only a small gap was left open near his eyes so he could see what was in front of him.

"And now little ice mage, you get to see the true might of my _Colossus Magic"_


	10. The Scarlet Colossus

"Ah crap now he's really big this will just make things a bit more difficult" Drexel muttered to herself as she got off her ice net

"Before I begin tearing you apart I'd like to thank you for giving me one last entertaining battle as a member of the Dark Wings" Kyro said

"Last battle? What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Drexel asked

"Well if you haven't noticed yet my 'guild' isn't exactly doing so great right now they're actually getting beaten back right now. That teenager you used to distract me earlier is actually more impressive than I gave her credit for, she's actually turning the tide of the battle" Kyro said pointing at the battle going on in the guild

The Dark Wings were slowly being pushed back as their numbers had dropped to only ten members including their master who were slowly being surrounded by the guards. At the head was a bloodied Captain Stevenson whose _light armor_ had long been worn away but she was still leading the attack. Mavis was alongside the captain defending the rest of the guards with her supportive spells while also closing off the escape route for the Dark Wings mages. The dark mages had now realized that they were trapped and formed a tight circle around their master.

"Damn those guards for wrecking my guild apart, and damn that Kyro for not being here when we need him most" Zachary cursed angrily

"So yeah I don't think they have that much time left, which is good for me because it means I can leave this place with peace of mind and seek out strong opponents like yourself" Kyro said calmly

"You are probably the most fucked up person I have ever met in my life and that's saying something" Drexel said with a wry smile

"Enough talk now you die!" Kyro said

He charged at Drexel who was standing still closing the distance in two long strides and brought his fist down towards Drexel. Drexel jumped avoiding the fist and landed on Kyro's arm, she aimed an _ice lance _barrage at the small opening near Kyro's eyes; however she was forced to duck a swing from Kyro's other arm and then had to jump off as Kyro grew rock spikes on his arm where she was standing. Kyro charged at her again laughing all the while as he swung wildly at the elusive Drexel who was trying her hardest to not get hit.

"Damn it there's no way I can win at this rate" Drexel thought to herself as she ducked another swing

"Hmm as much as I enjoy chasing you around would you mind sitting still, I mean we all know who's going to win" Kyro asked confidently

Drexel ignored the snide remark by Kyro and started formulating a strategy to somehow win this battle. She was getting tired and knew she couldn't keep dodging forever, what's worse was that her enemy's magic seemed endless to her, and even worse than that was his armor which looked too strong for her attacks.

"Well I suppose looks can be deceiving might as well test out that armor of his, _Ice Bazooka_" Drexel thought as she casted the spell

The shot bounced harmlessly off Kyro who looked at where it hit his body and began laughing at the tired ice mage.

"That's just funny!" Kyro laughed "I mean you used a rocket launcher that literally bounced off my armor; I mean it didn't even explode it bounced off like a ball. Come on little one if that's all the power you have left you might as well just let me finish this now" He said laughing even harder

"I'm really going to kick his ass now" Drexel thought angrily

She charged at the still laughing Kyro who was now holding his sides due to his laughter, she quickly jumped up to face level with Kyro her hand right on the gap in his armor. Right as she was about to cast her _ice halberd_ at point blank range and end the battle Kyro suddenly stopped laughing and brought his right arm and swiped Drexel away from his face. She gave out a cry of pain as she hit the ground with a loud thud and rolled another ten feet before coming to a stop on her back.

"My everything" Drexel muttered out in pain as she coughed up some blood

"You really fell for that huh? How crazy do you think I am to actually laugh too hard to forget about my opponent?" Kyro asked curiously as he walked towards the fallen Drexel

She saw him coming but was too injured to do anything but crawl away weakly from Kyro who took a moment to watch her crawl away with a bored expression. Kyro gave a shrug before picking Drexel up with one his rock hands, he removed the earth that was covering the rest of his face and brought Drexel close to his face.

"Eh, you're kind of average looking now that I get a closer look at you" Kyro remarked as he examined Drexel

"Go to hell!" Drexel muttered weakly before spitting on Kyro's face.

"Now that wasn't nice at all I'll make sure you die even slower now" Kyro said smiling as he started squeezing Drexel with his colossus hand causing her to give a pained scream. "Don't die on me now we've still got a long way to go till that happens" Kyro said sadistically

Meanwhile the battle inside the guild had turned into a standstill with the dark mages fighting like cornered animals desperately trying to stay alive. The guard's numbers had been reduced to half strength as they had tried several assaults on the last few mages that ended up in failure. Master Zachary was forced to make a _Wind Wall_ to stop the battle and give his few mages some rest. Both sides were recovering and measuring up each other; the guards still outnumbered the mages about 3:1 but the _light armor_ that had been cast on them was wearing away leaving the guards quite vulnerable. The Dark Wings mages were in no better condition as most of the mages were running out of magic power, what was worse was that only six of them were left, and it would only be a matter of time before they were killed if they couldn't escape. Master Zachary was trying to think of a way to break through the guards but each way ended up in them dying.

"If I could somehow kill that woman who's leading the assault it would bring the guards' morale down and throw them into disarray, then we could break through and get out of here" Zachary thought "But the problem is that damn brat who showed up, she's still fresh and I'm not sure if I could get by her as well" Zachary thought

He knew that staying in this circle would only prolong their lives by a few minutes at best so he had to at least try to kill the captain. He gave the order for the rest of his mages to attack Mavis and he focused his attacks on Captain Stevenson. He shut down the _wind wall_ he had made and let out a flurry of wind spells to try and end the captain's life however she nimbly dodged most of the spells and blocked the last _wind burst_ with her sword pushing her back. Mavis herself was holding her own against the five mages who were desperately trying to kill her, she knew she could easily outlast the attackers and simply focused on defending herself. The mages' assault proved to be futile as now the guards had surrounded these five and closed in to kill the hapless mages.

"So much for those five, you're on your own Zachary that monster of yours doesn't look too interested in returning to this battle. Why don't you just do the honorable thing and give up?" Jenna asked

"Surrender to you, why? Just so you can do a public execution in front of the people and get more fame? No way will I die like that I'm either getting out of here or bringing you to hell with me!" Zachary responded

"So be it" Jenna responded

Zachary resumed his flurry of wind attacks on the captain trying to land a single blow on her, she was able to dodge most of them but she was tiring out and each attack was getting closer and closer. Jenna jumped over a _wind blade_, landed on her feet, and ran towards Zachary and aimed a sword slash at his neck; however Zachary blocked her slash with a _wind shield_ and then punched her in the ribs. He aimed another _wind blade_ to finish her off however right as he was about to his hand was stung by a _light beam_.

"What the hell!" Zachary exclaimed

"Ah, sorry about that I guess I got a bit too into the battle and cast a spell on accident I promise it won't happen again! Mavis responded with a smile

"You stupid brat I'll kill you!" Zachary screamed out now turning towards Mavis

"Always make sure your opponent is dead before fighting another one" Jenna said quietly as she recovered and stabbed Zachary in the back

"Ugh! Damn it all…" Zachary managed to say before he fell over dead

Jenna didn't bother to get her sword out of the fallen Zachary as she was far too exhausted and was trying her best to stay up. However her legs gave out on her and she fell forward into Mavis who had rushed to congratulate her with the rest of the guards.

"Ah you're heavy Ms. Stevenson, I can't hold on" Mavis said trying to hold the captain but she fell on her back pinned in place by the smiling captain

"Just call me Jenna kid and I owe you big time for the save" Jenna said weakly

The guards quickly rushed to their fallen captain and picked her off of Mavis who they didn't bother to pick up. They were far more concerned with their captain and ensuring her well being, although they were relieved when Jenna told them all to calm down and to help Mavis as well. They gave a loud cry of victory and were happily celebrating that they had finally taken their town back.

"What are you guys cheering about? We still need to take care of our dead" Jenna said sternly silencing the cheering guards quickly

"Yes sir" they responded in unison and began setting off to work

"What do we do with the Dark Wings' dead?" one of the guards asked

"Leave them here, they don't deserve a decent burial for all the things they've done" Jenna responded

"Congratulations on getting your city back captain!" Mavis said happily as she was working on the captain's wounds

"Don't worry about me kid I'll survive this, it's your friend I'm worried about she doesn't look like she's in a good position right now" Jenna said

"I'd like to help her I really would but… I think I'd just get in her way" Mavis said softly continuing on healing the captain

"Now what gives you that idea? You did good here I'm sure you could at least do something to help her out" Jenna said

"Maybe, but those two are way out of my league" Mavis responded

"More banter between those two that doesn't end in anything meaningful so I'm just skipping back to Drexel and the crazy guy" Chaos said skipping a portion of the story

Kyro was having the time of his life right now, there really was nothing like putting your opponent through hell before you killed them. The only thing that would have made this moment better was if the ice mage would beg for her life like the Enforcement captain did before he died. But beggars can't be choosers and he was content to simply toss Drexel around and hear her scream in pain.

"Haha beat my personal best of twenty feet. This is a momentous day truly, now why aren't you cheering for me little one?" Kyro laughed as he walked towards Drexel and then picking her up once more

"Not so confident now are we? That's alright though we all have moments where we didn't know what we were getting into well everyone but me, but my point still stands" Kyro lectured as he squeezed Drexel harder "Hmm, no screaming? Is she dead, because that would really suck if she was dead… maybe she's just playing dead and is waiting for me to take my armor off ah what do I do?" Kyro wondered

The colossus was quite unsure of what to do normally his opponents were usually splattered in about twelve different directions but this one just wasn't moving and it didn't look like she was breathing. Now it would be the safe thing to simply punch her just to make sure she was dead but that went against Kyro's principle of never disrespecting the dead.

"Wait he's fine with torturing people but the minute they're dead he decides to stop and give them respect?" Lahar objected

"Don't ask me, I'm just reporting what he's thinking at this point" Chaos said now used to Lahar's interruptions

"On with the story then assassin" the chairman ordered

Point is beating up dead bodies was a big no no according to Kyro although this opponent was a tricky one so maybe he could break this principle just once. He decided that this would be the best course then he would pray to his gods for forgiveness for disrespecting a dead body later. He threw Drexel's limp body to the ground a few feet away from him and walked towards her slowly carefully looking for any signs of a trap. He reached the body and after determining that all was safe he raised his foot and stomped hard crushing the body of Drexel and hearing an odd cracking noise.

"Hmm do bodies make that noise? I always thought it was more of a crunching noise that one sounded more like well…" Kyro thought aloud

"Like ice breaking?" a voice asked

"Ah exactly that was like ice breaking… what?" Kyro answered happily before realizing someone else had asked him that

"_Explosive Crystals!" _Drexel said with both her hands on Kyro's back

The ice crystals ripped through the back portion of Kyro's colossus armor and made its way clean through the other side of Kyro's armor covered in Kyro's blood.

"Ugh, impossible I can't be beaten I-"Kyro shouted in pain

"Rule 2 of combat if you have the choice between toying with your opponent or killing them, kill them as it's the only guaranteed way of winning the fight" Drexel lectured him with a victorious smile

"When did you switch places? When!?" Kyro asked as blood was now running from his mouth

"Hmm, not sure really about the third time you tossed me around I guess, right before you record toss I think anyway you certainly took your time and it gave me enough time to recover and sneak up after you were going through that dilemma of yours" Drexel answered

Kyro gave no response instead his _Armor of the Colossus_ began withering away and when it left Kyro fell to the ground and gave no signs of moving. Drexel wanted to go inspect his body just to make sure but it was hard enough for her to stand let alone move. She lied down on the ground staring at the night sky with her vision being obscured by her blood that was still running down her face; she gave a sigh before closing her eyes and going into a deep sleep.

When she woke up she was in a bed in a building she didn't recognize sitting next to her on a chair was Mavis who was reading a book; there were two guards posted outside the door that led to her room which gave Drexel some relief as she realized she was safe for now. She noticed the surprising amount of bandages that had been placed on her and she wondered just how much damage that Colossus had inflicted on her before she finally got him. She sat up on her bed and was still feeling some soreness from the battle; her actions brought the attention of Mavis who looked very happy to see Drexel up.

"Yeah, you're alive!" Mavis said happily

"Did I really look that bad?" Drexel asked

"Oh yeah you had blood covering your face, at least three ribs broken, lots of bruising, and even more blood!" Mavis said listing out Drexel's injuries

"Well sorry to worry you then, oh how'd the rest of the battle go?" Drexel asked remembering the true objective of the battle

"That? We killed all of the Dark Wings members and the captain made it out safe so all looks well for Oshibana Town, I hear the people might throw us a parade in a few days" Mavis answered

"Sounds fun, too bad we'll have to report back to your brother before that happens" Drexel answered

"Damn it, I really wanted to see this parade. Oh well I guess it'll be nice to see him again and go to the spas" Mavis said

On that note Drexel got off her bed and began walking towards the door surprising both Mavis and the two guards, they vainly tried getting to her to lie down again to get more rest although Drexel politely refused. She only asked where Captain Stevenson was and then left the two confused guards alone with Mavis in tow; they walked to the command center of the guards and noticed the bandaged captain still giving orders to the guards. She noticed the two walking towards her and turned to face them giving a small smile.

"Here I was being told you'd be out for another day at least, shows what our doctors know huh?" Jenna asked

"Look at you I can barely tell you're a person underneath those bandages" Drexel responded

"That is true but I'll be alright. Oshibana Town owes you two one major debt of gratitude for getting rid of the Dark Wings" Jenna said

"We didn't do that much all I did was distract their monster and Mavis mostly did support" Drexel said casually trying to deflect the praise

"Distract him? You actually killed that insane bastard and stopped him from helping out his guild which let us take out the rest of them." Jenna responded

"So you guys actually checked his body to make sure he was dead?" Drexel asked

"Yep, he wasn't breathing he had no heart beat and wasn't responding to any of us poking him with our weapons so he's most likely dead" Jenna answered

"That's good, the last thing I needed was to have him survive and then hunt me down later. Anyway it was a pleasure working with you captain but I will have to admit saving your town wasn't really our primary objective we were actually looking for someone" Drexel said

"That's alright, who's the person you two were looking for?" Jenna asked

"A woman who had pink hair and went by the name of Julia she was also said to be a dragon slayer" Mavis answered

"Hmm, dragon slayer and pink hair… nope haven't see anyone like that around granted it could be that we didn't see her as we were dealing with the Dark Wings but I doubt I'd miss anyone with pink hair" Jenna said

"That's alright it's not that important anyway we'll just try another place come on Mavis we're leaving" Drexel said

"Oh don't leave now we're holding a celebration in a few days and we can't have it without you two" Jenna protested

"Sorry captain but we have other things to do right now and I promised this girl's brother I'd have her back safely to him at Balsam in a few days. So we're leaving now to get there in time" Drexel declined

"Fine well I wish we had something to give you as a token of our appreciation but sadly that's not the case" Jenna sighed

"That's alright captain we were just happy to help, bye!" Mavis said

Drexel and Mavis left the guard center to go back to the hotel they were staying at to get their stuff before leaving the town. They got their things packed, checked out of the hotel, and left the city towards the spa town of Balsam. As they were walking down the road Mavis decided to ask Drexel about the future plans that would be done to stop the Council.

"Hell if I know kid your brother is the one planning this whole thing out so you'll have to ask him" Drexel responded

"But he must have told you something!" Mavis pressed

"He didn't, I know just as much as you do kid. The Council's trying to unlock ancient powers and take over the world, as to when they'll do it is an entirely different question. But I presume that since your brother gave us five days to find this Julia it means he's in no hurry to stop them yet" Drexel responded

"But I doubt the four of us can do anything to the Council" Mavis said

"Of course we can't we'll need strong people and an army to do some damage I just have no idea how we'll do it" Drexel said, when she finished this she stopped which also caused Mavis to stop giving Drexel a curious look

"Drexel is everything alright?" Mavis asked

"Impressive, when did you make the switch?" Drexel asked to no one it seemed

"Oh about a few minutes after you passed out, but a few seconds before the guards got to me so I couldn't kill you"

"Come to finish the job?"

"On the contrary"

Suddenly Kyro made himself known to the two mages surprising Mavis although Drexel looked quite calm he had been following them carefully and only now had Drexel noticed him.

"I followed you two after I was able to recover from my wounds and I couldn't help but hear your earlier conversation and it piqued my interest" Kyro said casually

"What's it to you?" Mavis asked with a hostile tone

"Calm down young one I'm in no mood to fight you two right now, anyways as I told your friend earlier I love fighting strong people it gets me… excited. Those councilors are strong people and it seems to me that you'll need all the help you can get" Kyro said with a smile

"You're offering to help us after I nearly killed you? You really are one strange person" Drexel said

"It works for both sides really, you get extra help in your quest and I get to fight more strong people. We both win in the end" Kyro responded

"Drexel you can't honestly be thinking about letting him join us, the man is clearly insane" Mavis protested

"He certainly does make your brother look normal that's for sure" Drexel muttered

"If you refuse then I'll simply head out on my own and we'll never see each other again" Kyro said

"Please Drexel do not let this guy in" Mavis pleaded

"I'm not letting him in" Drexel said

"Thank you" Mavis said now turning around

"That's for your brother to decide when we see him later" Drexel finished

"What?" Mavis asked frozen in position

"He can come with us and then we'll let your brother decide if he's of any use to use" Drexel said motioning Kyro to follow them

"B-But I.." Mavis stammered

"Calm down young one I'm not going to be killing you or attempting to do that if that's what you're worried about" Kyro said trying to calm the girl down

"This is stupid is what this is" Mavis grumbled

"By the way ice mage, I still haven't gotten your name yet and calling you ice mage isn't that fun anymore" Kyro asked

"It's Drexel, and this kid's name is Mavis. Yourself" Drexel asked

"Kyro Scarlet" he responded

"Well then Kyro I hope you like spas because we're headed to Balsam now"


	11. The Blood Mage

"Do you mind if I take a break to stretch out a bit?" Chaos asked his two listeners

"Go ahead assassin we've got all the time in the world" Guran responded

"Hmm when you put it like that I'm suddenly more depressed, are you sure nobody's going to come and break me out?" Chaos asked desperately as he stretched

"We're sure besides only the Chairman and now me know about his place so don't get your hopes up" Lahar answered

"Whatever guess I'll just put myself in the trance again and wait another hundred or so years, still depressing though. Alright I'm done stretching now back to the story which will get far more interesting now that I'm involved once again" Chaos began

Chaos walked through the large city and began remembering why he loved Crocus so much: the city had every type of store he could imagine, every food he liked, oh and it was filled with people which meant it was easy to hide after you just killed someone. He knew the city well although he still managed to get himself lost several times along the way to his mentor's house, but he blamed that more on thinking about what to do with the Council. He didn't really know how to go about bringing down the Council after getting his squad which was another reason he was going to his mentor's house, as much as they tended to disagree on many things his mentor was pretty smart. He finally got to his mentor's house after managing to get lost once again although he didn't really like what he saw when he got there.

"Oh great, Council guards I wonder what they're doing here… I'm pretty sure the Council's given up on finding me unless they're here for another reason." Chaos thought idly

He decided that it wasn't really that important as he doubted that the Council was in a mood to fight him in the middle of Crocus. He walked through the gates of his mentor's house past the guards who didn't make a move to stop him. He walked up to the door and began knocking at a consistent rate not stopping even though the voices inside told him to wait a few minutes. As he meticulously knocked the door he wondered who was at his mentor's house, the amount of guards indicated that there was someone of importance but he didn't know how important the person inside was.

"Sheesh a little patience would go a long way" a voice inside muttered with a frustrated tone as the door was finally opened for Chaos.

"Sup kid haven't seen you in a while" Chaos said barging past the surprised youth

Chaos ignored the protests of the youth as he made his way to the living room of the house that he used to train at as a kid. He found his mentor sitting on a couch drinking something from a cup, next to him was his semi-attractive niece Catherine who looked pleasantly surprised to see Chaos.

"Okay, I need to ask what does semi-attractive mean?" The chairman asked curiously

"Well she was attractive enough that I wouldn't exactly mind waking up next to her, but she wasn't that attractive where I'd be too happy with my decisions that led up to that moment" Chaos responded

"That makes some sense I guess; wait a minute how old was she at the time?" the chairman asked

"Don't worry she was about two years younger than me I think; she was of legal age that if I did in fact wake up next to her I would not be prosecuted… granted her uncle would have murdered me" Chaos responded

His mentor didn't look too surprised to see his former student barge in like this at all, the kid never did care about things like social norms or common courtesy. The man had gray hair going down to his shoulder, was nearly six feet tall, and had an average build which didn't say much about his skills as an assassin. His face was clean shaven with multiple scars along his cheeks and one across his forehead; the most interesting thing about this man was his heterochromic eyes one was silver the other one black. The girl next to him had looked a bit more surprised although looked fairly calm; she had blonde hair that she had style in a short ponytail; she had fair skin, black eyes, and was around five and a half feet; to sum it up semi-attractive.

"Well this is surprising to say the least, now two of my former students come to visit" His master said over his cup

"Two? Oh you mean blondie over there" Chaos said pointing to the youth who had opened the door for him

"Don't blondie me, it's Kieran and what are you doing here?" Kieran said angrily

"Now don't get so angry now blondie I had some business to conduct with Jax over here and it's kind of important so if you'd kindly leave" Chaos began

"Like hell I'm leaving I was here first!" Kieran protested

"What are you five? Didn't your parents teach you to respect your elders even if they are only two years older than you? Oh right I forgot that Mr. Rich kid over here's parents never bothered to teach him anything let alone pay attention to him" Chaos taunted

"I'm going to kick your ass if you don't shut up soon" Kieran responded furiously

"Oh, how cute it seems that little Kieran Heartfilia has grown a pair in the past few years, but just because you've finally gone through puberty doesn't mean you can beat me let alone touch me" Chaos said confidently while assuming a fighting stance

"Just because you used to be one of the Chairman's favorite assassins doesn't mean I can't handle you I am a Councilor after all" Kieran said

"Oh yeah tough talk, except that you forgot to bring your lances with you and even with them I wouldn't have a problem with you!" Chaos said charging towards Kieran

"Enough both of you" their master said suddenly appearing in between them thrusting his palms to block both of them. Chaos was able to block his master's blow unfortunately Kieran wasn't fast enough and got hit straight in the ribs sending him flying out the still open door.

"Well I assume you're free to talk then master?" Chaos asked shaking his hands which still had some lingering pain

"I should say goodbye to my other apprentice although it seems clear which one of you listened to me more attentively" his master said walking outside

"So how have you been Catherine?" Chaos asked trying to make some small talk

"I've been fine it's been a while since you've come back here what made you decide to come back?" Catherine asked him

"Oh this and that I just need to talk with your dear Uncle Jax about some stuff nothing too important" Chaos answered

Chaos took a seat across from Catherine who continued to drink her tea while they both waited for Jax to return from saying his goodbyes. He came back with the same expression he had started with, took his seat next to his niece, and resumed drinking his tea.

"Did you really have to hit so hard? My hands still sting like hell" Chaos asked annoyed

"Yes, now what brings you here are you here to say hello as well?" Jax asked Chaos without looking up

"Not really if I wanted to say hi I would have done that a while ago, I'm here because I'm in need of your help Master" Chaos answered

"Is that right? And what do you need from me now; I left you with nearly everything I knew and the only reason you didn't learn everything was because you thought it was boring." Jax said

"Don't be like that Master it's just the boring stuff didn't have any real world use… I see no reason to pray after you kill someone you're just doing your job." Chaos explained

"Just say why you're here otherwise we'll be here all day" Catherine interjected knowing how long it would take for them to actually talk about what they wanted to.

"Right, so to keep things short the Council is doing shady rituals to unlock ancient sources of power enabling them to take over the world and have our 'glorious' chairman rule over us" Chaos said quickly

"I see, do you have any proof or are you rambling again?" Jax asked still not looking up from his cup

Chaos nodded, pulled out the papers from the pocket dimension he had stored them in, and then handed them over to Jax. Jax took a moment to read the papers he was given then tossed them to Catherine who read them quietly before giving them back to Chaos.

"Well?" Chaos asked

"You're certainly right and it does seem our noble Councilors have all signed off on this plan, including my other apprentice. Hmm but how did you get your hands on these, I doubt they gave it to you willingly?" Jax asked now looking at Chaos

"Eh, I got them from not so subtly over hearing their conversation… and they may have been sending assassins at me over the last week although they're all dead and I think the Council might be out right now" Chaos answered

"Weren't you trained to be not be noticed by people, how were you caught so easily? Especially when my uncle trained you?" Catherine asked

"Look when after a successful mission I have to repot back to our 'illustrious' chairman and when you hear his voice you tend to go to it and find him" Chaos explained

"That doesn't explain how you got the papers either you were stupid enough to not hear what he was saying and walked in blindly before taking their plans which doesn't make any sense. Or more likely you eavesdropped on them and decided to get their plans and use them as blackmail which you love to do to people" Jax interrupted coldly

"Oh you can read me like a book master. Point is I got the plans and they know I have it but strangely are leaving me alone right now so yeah" Chaos responded with a cheerful smile

"No I won't join you" Jax told him

"Do you have to be so direct?" Chaos asked kind of hurt inside

"Yes if you don't have anything else to talk about I'll ask you to leave then" Jax replied

"Well so your 'favorite' apprentice decides to help the Council initiate a bloody takeover of the world and you're completely fine with it?" Chaos asked

"Who said he was my favorite?" Jax replied

"Oh come on uncle we all know he's your favorite I mean you've only had two apprentices and you absolutely hate Chaos so it's kind of by default that it's Kieran… and even then you were oddly less harsh in Kieran's training" Catherine interjected

"What's your point?" Jax asked

"Point is you like Kieran and won't help me bring him down because god forbid you're favorite apprentice is actually an evil bastard, and even worse would be if he used your training to do so" Chaos said harshly

"My training is for assassinating people anyway" Jax replied

"For maintaining peace or getting rid of people the Councilors don't like NOT taking over the world" Chaos said

"You're not going to guilt me into joining you" Jax said

"Damn" Chaos thought "Fine then I'm going to leave nice seeing you again Catherine" he said while getting up to leave

"Stop by again if you have other problems" Jax said

"Hey Catherine how's your magic training been going?" Chaos asked suddenly returning to his seat

"Oh that? Umm fine I'm done learning under my master and she's said I'm a full fledged blood mage now" Catherine replied surprised that Chaos cared

"Blood magic huh, now that is an interesting type of magic very dark and powerful. Would you mind giving me a demonstration" Chaos replied with a smile

"Sure, let's go to the practice area in the back and I'll show you" Catherine said

Catherine got up and walked towards the practice area outside leaving Chaos and Jax alone, Chaos got up slowly to follow her before he stopped he looked at Jax once more and gave a disappointed nod before leaving. He walked towards the very familiar area that he used to train at when he was a mere twelve year old starting out as an assassin in training. Catherine was waiting for him in the middle of the area and he walked towards the seat where Jax used to sit and watch him practice.

"Anything specific you want me to show you?" Catherine asked

"Not particularly just show me the basics I'm quite curious as to what _blood magic actually _does and how effective it can be" Chaos replied

"Okay then" Catherine said

She took a deep breath and then pulled out a small knife and then slashed her own arm which caused Chaos to pay even more attention to the display. She waited for a few seconds to let the blood run down her arm a bit before she began; she started by casting a spell to multiply the amount of blood that was there originally. Next she manipulated the large amount of blood to move into one stream that she controlled easily with her hands, she continued the display doing a variety of tricks which impressed Chaos enough to give her a small round of applause.

"Well done my dear I should be asking you to come with me instead of your uncle" Chaos congratulated

"Oh that's nothing I can do much better if you want heck I can cut through steel easily" Catherine bragged

"Alright then" Chaos said getting up and drawing his hidden sword

"Wait are you going to spar with me?" Catherine asked

"Of course I am unless you're afraid" Chaos said

"Like hell I am I can take you easily… just to make sure this isn't to the death got it?" Catherine said

Chaos nodded and suddenly charged towards Catherine taking her by surprise and began a quick offensive. He aimed multiple sword slashes at Catherine at a quick rate but she was able to block every one with her blood magic although she was being forced back. Catherine was able to block the last one and forced Chaos into a deadlock he tried pushing against the blood but was surprised to see he wasn't able to push forward. Catherine gave a smile and now changed the blood's properties to go around Chaos' blade and to envelop him, but he immediately drew back flipping to avoid the blood that was chasing him he jumped back and noticed that the blood actually was burning through the places he was.

"What kind of blood does that? I really should take Catherine with me but perhaps I can also get my mater to come with us as well" Chaos thought to himself

He nimbly dodged the repeated strikes Catherine aimed at him and noticed that she was slowing down on her strikes. He figured she was conserving energy as manipulating this much blood must have been taking a toll on her by now. He ran towards Catherine dodging her attempts to bring him down and began attacking her again; she blocked his downward slash and Chaos noticed that his sword had a scratch on it but continued to attack. Catherine parried his last blow and aimed a _blood slash_ at his abdomen which he tried blocking with his sword but his sword broke from the impact leaving him defenseless at the time being.

"I told you I could do it" Catherine said

"Only took you several minutes to do so" Chaos said

"If this was a fight to the death I would have won you know" Catherine remarked

"Oh, this wasn't a fight to the death? Woops" Chaos said surprised dropping the several daggers he had telepathically placed behind Catherine causing her to turn around in surprise

"Why am I not surprised that you forgot?" Catherine asked sarcastically

"It's just what's ingrained in me I can't help it. But the good news is that you proved that you could at least hang with me while I was trying to kill you so I'd like to extend an offer for you to join us" Chaos said

"Me? I thought you were here for my uncle?" Catherine asked

"I was originally but you'd be extremely helpful for our mission" Chaos answered

"Who else is with you?" she asked

"It's me, another assassin who's nearly as good as me, Kazuo the Thunder God, a dragon slayer trained by Acnologia, and my sister" he answered

"Your sister? I thought you said she died when you were younger" she responded

"No not that one I found another one to take care of while working for the Council. Anyway it's a solid group that would easily be bolstered by someone of your caliber" He said casually stepping near her and putting his arm around her shoulder

"I'd uh have to ask my uncle" Catherine said quietly surprised at Chaos being so forward with her

"Come now my dear you're a woman now you don't need your uncle's permission to do things anymore" Chaos said soothingly

"Need my permission for what?" Jax asked standing from the door

"Oh nothing really I just asked her if she would like to come with me on my little journey seeing as you refuse to do the right thing" Chaos said with a smirk

"Is that so? Well it's my house so my rules Catherine I won't allow you to join him he's only going to use you for whatever he wants" Jax told her

"But Uncle Jax the evidence is clear the Council is going way beyond their authority here someone needs to stop them, and besides it's good people standing by that lets evil deeds happen" Catherine said

"Exactly Jax she knows what to do but I'll let you two talk it out, I'll be in Crocus for a few more days before I meet up with the rest of my group in Balsam Village for some relaxation and further planning. I'm staying at the Blooming Inn, room 213 so if you make up your mind you can visit me there" Chaos said

Jax was angry enough with Chaos that he had offered Catherine a chance to join them to challenge the Magic Council, what made him even more angry was that Catherine was being used to make him go with them. Chaos didn't really care about what happened to Catherine just as long as Jax would come, and even more infuriating was that Chaos knew Catherine had feelings for him and was playing to that to further manipulate her, the only thing that stopped him from ending Chaos right there was that he had placed Catherine in front of him to keep him safe.

"Fine we'll talk but I'll ask you to leave now" Jax said

"As you wish, until we meet again my dear" Chaos said giving Catherine a small hug which caused her face to redden

Chaos exited the practice area, picked up the Council plans, stored them back in the dimension he kept them in, and then left the house. Jax closed the door behind him, sat down gave a sigh, and picked up his tea and drank the rest of it. Catherine was still standing looking at the door for a moment before she sat across from her uncle whose face looked worried. Jax could tell from the look on her face that she badly wanted to go with Chaos and fight the Council; she was stubborn like that just like her late father who was Jax's older brother. The last thing he wanted to do was see her end up like her parents while he was still alive; he loved her dearly and only wanted what was best for her.

"He's using you to get me to join him you know?" Jax said

"Maybe he is what's your point?" Catherine asked

"I know you do have some feelings for him but he doesn't feel that way about you at all" Jax said directly

"He… just shows it in his own way I think, in that battle I felt something from him that was nice almost like he was having fun with me. When I would watch him spar with you all I could sense was hatred coming from him, he's a better man now" Catherine replied boldly

"That may be what you think of him but he's still an assassin at heart so he doesn't care who has to die as long as his main objective is completed he'll be fine with it." Jax said

"So? As long as the greater good is accomplished it'll justify the means you're the one who taught him that" Catherine replied

"I didn't expect him to take it that literally though" Jax said

"All the more reason why I should go with them if I was there I could make sure he's mostly ethical about the things he does" Catherine said

"Do you really think he'd listen to you?" Jax asked

"Yes I do" Catherine replied

"I can see I can't reason with you" Jax sighed after a brief pause

"It's not reasoning Uncle I'm doing the right thing by joining him I just wish you would understand" she replied

"So you're going to join him?" he asked

"Yes" she replied firmly

"Fine then we'll tell him tomorrow" Jax said picking up his cup and heading towards the sink

"We?" Catherine asked

"I'm not letting you go on your own on this dangerous mission I couldn't dare face your father's grave if I didn't do my best to protect you" Jax said with a small smile still seething at Chaos inside.


	12. My Only Friends

"Well at least I gave Jax something to think about" Chaos muttered angrily to himself "My apprentice is trying to take over the world? Oh that's okay I don't need to do anything it's not my problem" Chaos said imitating his master angrily

He walked back to his inn which had too many flowers for his liking and walked to his room where he promptly fell on his bed somewhat exhausted. He gave a deep sigh before he kicked his shoes off and went to sleep without bothering to take the rest of his clothes off. He woke up early in the morning about an hour after sunset still tired for some reason although he blamed it on the stress of the mission he was doing. He quickly showered, did his hair just right, put his clothes on, and set out to find some place to eat some breakfast. He walked into the nearest diner and ate his usual breakfast of eggs, bacon, a peanut butter sandwich, and a large amount of tea which scared his server. After this he set out to once again meet his sources to find out the location of Acnologia's kid.

"Same question as yesterday" Chaos asked idly

"Same answer as yesterday, no sighting of this person" his source responded

"Alright well I'll see you tomorrow then" Chaos said leaving

He was very disinterested at this point and didn't care if he would find this girl he was still thinking ahead and trying to figure out what to do to fight the Council. He needed an army that much was clear but he wasn't sure how to get one; he was an assassin and the only politics he knew was the art of killing and staying in the shadows not making big speeches and motivating an army let alone getting one. He sighed again which he found himself doing a lot more and decided to take a break and sat on a bridge overlooking the river that ran through the city. It brought back a lot of memories as he always came to this place when he was about to be assigned a mission by a Councilor usually the Chairman who came in a ridiculous disguise each time. He reminisced about his work for the Council and his relationships with the Councilors most of whom he didn't get along with. It took him a while to realize the lack of people walking across the bridge and a bit longer to sense a familiar presence coming towards him.

"Just like old times huh assassin? You sit here and wait for me to come and give your job" a voice said getting closer

"Where's your stupid disguise?" Chaos asked still looking at the river

"Oh that's only for giving out jobs not for talking to old friends" the person said taking a seat next to Chaos

"Oh Chairman what will I ever do with you?" Chaos asked with a bored tone

The Chairman gave a laugh and Chaos soon joined him in the merriment; both laughed for a few seconds and then took a while to catch their breaths. Chaos finally turned his gaze to the Chairman and took a look at his old friend. The Chairman was the same age as the assassin and was in fact the youngest chairman in the history of the Magic Council; he was about an inch taller than Chaos, had light skin, blue eyes, and was very fit; all in all one attractive person… to Chaos anyway. The most defining feature of the Chairman was his white hair which he kept spiked up in a manner similar to a certain blonde protagonist in Chaos's second favorite video game.

"Unfortunately for the both of us we can't keep reminiscing like this forever… the plans please" the Chairman remarked growing serious

"No idea what you're talking about" Chaos answered

"Really? Then I suppose it was another assassin who looked just like you who waltzed in took our plans before escaping and killing every assassin we sent after him" the Chairman pressed further

"Must have been" Chaos responded contemplating if he could kill the Chairman right here

"Would you please give me the plans friend? The last thing I want to do is arrest you and then torture them out of you it really would put a damper on our friendship" the Chairman replied with a sullen face

"Come on now Kaizus even if you did that we'd still be friends I mean if I killed you right now I'd cry my eyes out at your funeral while consoling your hot wife… speaking of your wife how is she doing?" Chaos said

"She's fine, now don't try and change the subject" Kaizus answered

"How's the kid? Has it been keeping you up all night just like the magazines say they do?" Chaos asked ignoring Kaizus

"She is a little angel in fact; you'd know that if you actually bothered to visit us when we're not working" Kaizus said taking particular offense at Chaos calling his daughter it.

"Why would I do that? It would just add some unnecessary stress to me knowing I'll have to kill her parents and leave her as an orphan. Then she'd have to grow up and get revenge just like I did for my parents when they were killed… she'd be a female version of me how interesting except she'd have white hair. Point is it's much easier to wrong someone when you've never seen them before" Chaos remarked

"You're getting ahead of yourself Chaos what makes you think you'd stand a chance on your own of beating me or my wife who's on a much different level than we are?" Kaizus asked with a smirk

"Because I'm smarter than both of you and I'd probably figure out something" Chaos answered dryly

"Is that so? Well if you had an army to back you I'd be worried but it's just you it looks like so I really don't buy your threats right now" Kaizus answered examining his fingernails for dirt

"Well that's my problem right now I don't have an army to take on the Council let alone mages strong enough to defeat your band of Councilors" Chaos said lying about the last part

"Haha, oh you can be so hilarious sometimes without realizing it old friend… I suppose I should simply kill you right here just to cover my bases but then I'm sure you've already figured out a way to kill me if I try which would ruin my plans" Kaizus laughed

"The same goes for me interesting for both of us; we'll probably fight each other in the end yet we can't do anything about it right now" Chaos remarked

"Ain't that the truth?" Kaizus replied then growing serious he asked "Join me old friend with you to help me out there's no way we could be stopped" he continued

"You're recruiting me?" Chaos asked somewhat surprised

"Yes on the terms that you give back the plans obviously and probably subject yourself to being constantly observed" Kaizus answered

"Or even better you could just promise to not do this and prove it by destroying every copy of these stupid plans" Chaos said with a cheerful look

"It can't be done. What I'm doing is necessary for Earthland to be a better place: a place where people don't fear dark guilds running around doing what they want, where they don't fear wars occurring between nations, a place where mages and non-mages could live in perfect harmony. You can't honestly tell me that my plans are evil by any measure" Kaizus explained

"Oh no your intentions are quite pure Kaizus as you yourself are a good man, a much better man than I… probably why your wife chose you over me. Problem is you're assuming that if you unlock these powers and take over the world you won't be changed and that you'll govern the place well, and even then what happens if you die there won't be anyone like you to rule and it'll either splinter apart and cause even more destruction or worse be ruled by a dictator" Chaos retorted

"It's not like that with these powers I would be immortal and rule forever!" Kaizus said enthusiastically

"There you go assuming you'd stay the same after you receive this power or after you become immortal and that ain't all it's cracked up to be just ask Zeref" Chaos answered

"I'm not Zeref this is for good not to cause war or create some horrible world where only mages are allowed to live and all non-mages are killed. You have to believe me Chaos I can do this, we can do this!" Kaizus pleaded

"Oh Kaizus I want to believe you I really do, but we're talking about ancient sealed powers here. Powers so strong they make Zeref look like a child in comparison, there's a reason why they're sealed Kaizus, and there's a reason why you don't see any more Ancients roaming around doing whatever they please" Chaos replied

"I can see you won't change your mind about this" Kaizus sighed

"Same goes to you" Chaos responded

"Well I guess I'll have to leave now and hope a chance to take you out later will arise before you take any significant action against me, but I do hope you'll see things my way soon" Kaizus said

"I hope you see things my way as well old friend the last thing I want to do is kill you and Jillhearts… you two are my only friends and I don't want to see our friendship end like this" Chaos said quietly

Kaizus gave no response instead he flipped backwards onto the bridge, brushed himself off, and began heading towards the direction he had arrived in.

"Oh and Chairman Strauss? If I do fail do try and rule the world benevolently" Chaos called out

Kaizus simply gave a thumbs up to Chaos before continuing in his path leaving the assassin alone.

"They were your only friends?" Lahar asked quietly to Chaos

"Yes… they were the only ones who could possibly understand me and what I had gone through. It's not important anymore I'm just telling you guys what happened" Chaos said still looking sad

"It looks to me that you still haven't gotten over it" Guran proposed

"What do you know? You're still an annoying teenager to me" Chaos sighed

Chaos didn't bother searching for Julia or Julie or whatever her name was at all after his conversation with Kaizus. He was a bit shaken from the conversation with his friend and was shocked at how passionate the normally apathetic Kaizus was about this. He wondered if in fact Kaizus was right in at least trying to do something positive while all he did was simply stop things from getting worse. This was something he couldn't get out of his head, not after dinner, not while in the bar where he ignored the flirting attempts of a girl his age. Even when he got back to his bed he couldn't shake the idea that maybe he was wrong and that supporting Kaizus might be better than stopping him.

"Am I really wavering like this? If so then I'm weaker than I thought guess I'll just have to live without friends from now on" Chaos decided trying to reaffirm his goals "But that's still a depressing thought" he thought once again wavering

He got up took another shower because he felt like he needed to relax in the hot water for a while, after the long shower he changed into his pajamas, and went to sleep. He woke up the next day and began his search for Julia or Julie or whatever her name was and was met with the exact same results from yesterday. He began wondering if she would actually show up to Crocus or maybe someone else had found her by now either way he really wished he had a communications lacrima to talk with the rest of his team just to see if someone else had found her. He didn't bother with going to a bar that night as he for the first time in a while he didn't feel like getting drunk he walked back to his room took another long shower before getting ready to go to sleep. As he was about to drift off to sleep he heard a knock on his door, he got up and slowly walked to the door to open it.

"Oh it's just you two, I'm guessing you have an answer for me?" Chaos muttered sleepily at Catherine and Jax

"Yes we do have an answer for you… do you mind if we talk it over inside your room?" Jax asked

"Eh why not?" Chaos said taking a seat on his bed motioning for them to enter

"So?" Chaos asked

"I'll be joining your group and fight with you until the Council is stopped in their tracks" Catherine declared

"That's nice, but if that's all why did he have to come with you?" Chaos asked

"I came because I'm also joining on this little quest" Jax answered

"Finally figured out which side was good?" Chaos asked sarcastically

"Not really any side with you on it is bound to be suspicious, I'm only joining you because I intend to keep my niece here safe on the journey" Jax said

"Come now I've sparred with this girl once and I think that's enough to say she can handle herself" Chaos said not happy with Jax's motivation

"I just don't trust you is all I'm saying so I'm coming to watch her and put a sword through your back if you try and get her killed" Jax responded

"Whatever" Chaos dismissed "Well we'll be leaving for Balsam Village tomorrow then" Chaos told them

"Tomorrow?" Catherine asked surprised

"Yes so pack your things cause I'll be leaving tomorrow with our without you guys, we need to meet with the rest of the team to plan out what we're going to do." Chaos explained

"Works for me, come on Catherine we're going" Jax said leaving

"One night to pack things, sheesh" Catherine muttered angrily

Chaos closed the door behind them and went to back to his bed to go to sleep with more confidence that he could stop Kaizus and the rest of the Council, and more importantly was more certain that he was doing the right thing. However he needed to find a way to keep his former master off his back so he could plan freely… which usually meant someone would end up dead.


	13. Meeting at Balsam Village

It was early in the morning when Chaos stepped in front of Jax's house and began knocking on the door meticulously. No answer came in the first few knocks so he called for them very loudly, but got no response; he was a bit annoyed as he distinctly remembered telling them to wake up early to leave. He thought for a moment on how to awake them before deciding on climbing the house nimbly to a window that led to a bedroom. He quickly opened the window from outside, jumped in, and noticed the sleeping figure of Catherine. He walked up to the sleeping girl got down near her face and began poking her in the forehead and telling her to wake up.

"Catherine wake up… wake up… wake up" he muttered poking her head each time to no avail

"Stop it Uncle Jax I haven't gotten by required eight hours of sleep" Catherine muttered turning away from Chaos

"I'm not your uncle; I'm the guy who's giving you a new exciting chapter in your life story… now wake up!" Chaos said annoyed now using his hidden sword to poke her in the forehead.

"Ow that hurts sto-"Catherine said opening her eyes "AH! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING IN MY ROOM!" she screamed jumping up in shock and falling off her bed

"Oh good you're awake now go wake your uncle up for me I would but I'm sure he'll stick some metal instrument in me if I try, and hurry up you're wasting time" Chaos told her happily

"Why are you in my room?!" Catherine said getting up slowly in pain

"Because you guys wouldn't answer the door when I was knocking" Chaos answered calmly

"Why are you at our door this early in the morning?" Catherine asked angrily

"Well I told you guys we were going to leave early so I assumed you guys would be awake by now" Chaos said

"You just said tomorrow you never said we'd be leaving this early!" Catherine yelled

"What are you talking about? I distinctly remember telling you guys to leave in the morning… or did I say that in my dream… ah it was the dream you are right I didn't say what time we'd be leaving" Chaos realized

"Then get out!" Catherine said pointing out the window

"Oh come on you're already up just go wake up Jax, pack your things up, and then we can go right to Balsam Village and enjoy spas!" Chaos said dismissing Catherine's order

"You have five seconds to get out my room on your own otherwise I'll be 'assisting' you out through the window" Catherine said menacingly

"Ah scary. Fine I'll go wake up your uncle up" Chaos said before quickly walking out her room

"Dumbass, now I can't even go back to sleep" Catherine thought

"Uncle Jax where are you" Chaos said in his best imitation of Catherine's voice as he searched through multiple rooms

"Are you in her- AH!" Chaos said opening a door then quickly closing it just before the thrown dagger could hit his face.

"Ah that was close I think I saw my life flashing before my eyes" Chaos muttered to himself "Alright now how am I supposed to wake him up ah I have the perfect idea" Chaos thought slyly

"Are you still out there? You have five seconds to leave my house otherwise I'm dumping your body outside in a bag" Jax called out threateningly

"Jax I'm only here to wake you up and tell you that we're leaving for Balsam soon" Chaos said too scared to open the door

"What? You just said we'd be leaving tomorrow not this early!" Jax replied angrily

"Yeah but I told you in my dream to wake up this early so unfortunately for you two here I am" Chaos sad

"You're an idiot!" Jax told him

"I know, now get up because Catherine and I are getting bored of waiting" Chaos said

"You already woke her up?" Jax asked

"Well I did kind of enter your house through her bedroom window so yeah she was the first person I encountered and I woke her up. She also told me that if you're not going to get up that we'll just pass the time in our own way" Chaos lied

"What the hell does that mean?" Jax asked confused

"I have no idea but going by the way she looked at me when she said it I can assume it's things you wouldn't want me to do to her, well I'll be off then" Chaos said leaving

Chaos knew he had roughly three seconds to get to Catherine's room and use her as protection from her most likely enraged uncle. He quickly ran up the stairs but found out that he only had two seconds left as Jax was already on his tail with his katana out and ran at Chaos. Jax quickly closed the distance between them and begin swinging his katana at Chaos aiming to end the running figure right there or at least take his manhood away. Chaos gave out a loud scream as he dodged each swing, was able to kick Jax to momentarily disable him, and then made one final burst to Catherine's room. As he got in he quickly flipped over to the other side of the bed picked Catherine cleanly up from the bed and put her in front of him as he hid in a corner.

"What are you doing?" Catherine asked slightly annoyed

"Waking your uncle up… and now hiding from him don't worry there's no way he'll go through you to get to me…I think" Chaos answered

"What did you do to him to make him that mad?" she asked

"Oh you know I might implied that if he stayed asleep you and I might be doing… things together" he answered sheepishly

"You're a dumbass" Catherine sighed

"Here he comes, make sure he doesn't kill me!" Chaos pleaded as he noticed Jax entering the room

"Calm down uncle he only said what he said to make you get up" Catherine explained

"He didn't do anything to you while I wasn't here?" Jax asked worriedly

"In the five seconds we were alone? No" she replied bluntly

He nodded before sheathing his katana and motioning to Chaos that it was safe to come out of the corner. Chaos took a few seconds to make sure the dark aura he felt coming from Jax had disappeared before coming out, although he still had Catherine in front of him as a precaution.

"So what's this about leaving now?" Jax asked forgetting his earlier conversation with Chaos due to his rage

"Well I dreamt that I told you guys we'd be leaving in the morning but I didn't do that in reality but the point is I'm here so pack up!" Chaos explained again also forgetting

"Well he's already taken great pains to wake us up might as well" Catherine suggested

"Fine I'll start after breakfast" Jax said "But first"

Jax suddenly dashed right towards a surprised Chaos grabbed him and then tossed him out the window before heading down stairs to make himself some food. Catherine briefly looked outside to check on Chaos: he wasn't moving and it did look like he had lost a good amount of blood, but she figured he was okay. They ate breakfast, showered, changed clothes, and packed their things before going outside to meet Chaos. He was still in the same position they had left him so Jax went to make sure he was still alive; after poking him a few times with his katana he heard a groan from Chaos just to make sure he gave another poke to Chaos.

"Stop that you ass" Chaos groaned in pain

"Just wanted to make sure you were alive" Jax said sheathing his sword

Chaos got up slowly, stood still for a moment to check to see if his body was alright, and then went over to get his stuff which he promptly placed on Jax's things.

"What are you going?" Jax asked

"I'm far too hurt to carry my things thanks to someone throwing me out a window so I think it's all fair if you carry it as you are the offending party" Chaos said

"Liar you're not hurt at all" Jax said

"Of course I am, my left hand oh it hurts so much" Chaos cried dramatically

"Fine if it shuts you up I'll do it" Jax said annoyed

"Let's see we walked and we walked to Balsam and yeah" Chaos muttered skipping most of the trip

It was evening when the group finally made it to Balsam village; they rented separate rooms at the inn and then set about to relax for the rest of the night. Chaos was the first to enjoy the hot springs as he had made Jax unpack all his things due to his "pain", he happily sunk in the water until it was just below his nose and closed his eyes. This was the first time in a long time he was able to relax and he did have a lot of stress to work off especially since there still was a lot of planning to do.

"Ah this is so nice!"Catherine said from the girl's side of the wall

"I'm glad you're enjoying it" Jax said as he joined Chaos in the hot springs.

"So where's the rest of your group?" Jax asked

"Them? Oh they'll be here by tomorrow I think, I told them to come in five days for further planning" Chaos answered

"So why are we here right now?" Jax asked

"That's a good question" Chaos answered

Jax didn't care enough to press the issue either way he was going to meet the rest of the team soon the only thing he cared about was keeping Chaos under his surveillance. They relaxed in silence for about ten minutes before they heard the voices of other people coming in to the inn as well. It sounded like three voices and Chaos felt like he recognized two of the voices but decided to keep quiet and stay in the springs. A few minutes later they heard footsteps and turned to see who was coming; the person who came was surprised to see others in the springs as well since he hadn't heard any voices, he shrugged and entered the springs.

"So how're you guys doing?" the red haired man asked cheerfully

"I've been better" Chaos replied still scanning this man wondering if red eyes were a possible eye color

"Fine" Jax replied

There was a momentary pause which made the newcomer a bit uncomfortable for some reason and he tried making conversation with the other two, but to no avail. He was slightly annoyed that the women were having an easier time making conversation and getting along. Finally he seemed resigned to the idea that he'd have to enjoy the hot springs in silence which unknown to him would last a few more seconds. Suddenly they heard two much louder voices coming from the inn which made everyone stop and turn to see what the noises were. Chaos gave a sigh as he knew who one of the voices was and muttered a few angry words under his breath.

"Someone you know?" Jax asked Chaos

"Oh you could say that" Chaos muttered "Looks like my relaxing bath just got cut short" he thought to himself sadly

Right on cue there was first a loud cry and a big splash that appeared on the women's side of the springs causing some water to enter the men's side. Chaos wondered if Kazuo had jumped into the women's side by mistake but that notion was quickly dispelled when he saw Kazuo appear in front of them.

"Oh look who it is!" Kazuo said squinting at Chaos

"Hey Kazuo what're you doing here?" Chaos asked with a fake smile on

"Oh I found our dragon slayer and we came here a bit early, now move aside I need some time to relax" Kazuo explained

"Before you do that let me get out first" Chaos said leaving the springs and wrapping his towel around him

"Alright well I'll see you inside then" Kazuo said as he was about to get in

"Ah that was close I almost died" Chaos thought

"Wait how did you almost die?" Lahar asked

"You'll see kid" Chaos explained

Kazuo gingerly felt the temperature of the spring with his big toe before he stepped into the spring and relaxed. Chaos shook his head sadly as he knew what would happen next; suddenly electricity flowed from Kazuo's body through the springs giving both Jax and the red haired dude a massive shock knocking them clean out.

"What happened to them?" Kazuo asked curiously

"You forgot to turn off your aura… you know the one that shocks everything it touches" Chaos said exasperatedly

"Hmm, I think you're right maybe that's why the receptionist's hair turned that way after we shook hands anyway I hope I didn't kill them" Kazuo though while turning off his electric aura

Chaos sighed before going back inside to the lobby of the inn where he ordered a few bottles of sake and began to drink it alone. He was somewhat annoyed that he wouldn't get the night to himself but he was happy that someone was able to find Julie or Julia or whatever her name was. He drank alone for a few minutes, but was still unable to get drunk by the time he was joined by another person which just so happened to be his sister.

"Ah big brother you're here!" she said happily rushing to hug her brother

"Indeed I am now would you mind letting me go?" Chaos asked trying to pry Mavis off of him

"What're you drinking?" she asked examining the open bottle

"Adult stuff that you're too young to drink" he said taking the bottle from her

"You said you wouldn't get drunk!" she lectured

"I'm not drunk I'm buzzed at worst it takes a while to get drunk off sake you know and besides that was until someone found our dragon slayer" he explained "So were you the ones who found the dragon slayer?' he asked

"No Drexel and I ended up liberating Oshibana Town and bringing a crazy person who according to Drexel makes you look normal by comparison" she said

"Damn what's he look like?" Chaos asked impressed that someone could make Drexel think that

"Red hair, red eyes, smiles a lot when fighting people" Mavis described

"Oh that dude yeah he might be dead" Chaos said drinking more sake

"What how?" Mavis asked somewhat concerned

"Oh Kazuo came by and he got in the pool forgetting to turn off his electric aura, took out your red head and my master" Chaos explained

"Wait your master when did you ever have a master?" she asked curiously

"Back when I was a bit younger than you learning how to kill for the Council. But I think Kazuo killed those two, why did you bring that red head anyway?" Chaos asked

"Because Drexel fought him and said that he might make a good addition to the squad but it's up to you in the end, I frankly don't want him" Mavis explained still suspicious of Kyro

"Is that so well I'll certainly take you opinion into consideration; here's some money go buy yourself something to drink" Chaos said giving her some money Mavis bought herself a soda, came back sat next to her brother, and they talked about their respective journeys.

"I'm proud of you kid you sound like you did well, Drexel did well too against that red head unless you're embellishing the story a bit on her behalf" he said patting her on the head to take the viewing lacrima he had snuck in her hair. "I'll see if he's any good later" Chaos thought

"Thanks, so who was that girl in the springs did she come with you?" Mavis asked curiously

"I assume you mean Catherine she's my master's niece she's got an interesting magic and I needed to get her to come to make my master come too" Chaos said

"I see" Mavis said wondering how far her brother would go to get what he wanted

They waited for the rest of the team to show up and they made the necessary introductions.

"Ah sorry about nearly killing you two earlier, but you got to admit it was pretty funny I mean only Chaos here knew what was coming and he didn't even warn you" Kazuo apologized then breaking into laughter

"That's alright and I suppose I deserved that shock because I threw our dear Chaos out my window earlier today" Jax said

"Why didn't he warn me?" Kyro asked slightly annoyed

"Because you were too far in the springs to do anything, if I warned you Jax over here would have gotten out safely and my revenge wouldn't have been complete" Chaos explained

"Oh that makes sense" Kyro said smiling at Chaos' dedication to revenge

"Well seeing that everyone including myself disregarded my orders that means we'll just do the planning tomorrow then so do whatever for today" Chaos said while going to Kazuo "hey old timer can I talk to you in private"

"Umm sure" Kazuo agreed

"So how is she?" Chaos asked

"Julia? She's an excellent fighter, got lots of power, and lots of fire she'll be very useful for our squad" Kazuo said positively

"Well congratulations for finding her first of all" Chaos said giving Kazuo a pat on the back to take off the lacrima he had put on the Thunder God earlier "But she seems a bit overexcited" Chaos commented as he watched Julia force sake down Catherine's throat

"Haha don't worry they're just having fun, you should go have fun with them" Kazuo encouraged while laughing

"There's only two people I have fun with and at the end of this mission both might be dead. I'll be in my room if anyone needs me" Chaos said leaving Kazuo alone

Kazuo observed Chaos walking away before he shrugged and left to join the others in the partying. Meanwhile Chaos sat alone in his room looking watching the lacrima of Kazuo finding Julia then of Mavis' journey although he was disappointed that it didn't show much of Kyro fighting which was what he wanted to see, still he was proud of his sister and that she actually listened to him when he trained her.

"This Julia is clearly an idiot why else would she stand still for that long… more importantly why the hell did Kazuo not do anything? Anyway at least Hana came in and saved them… that's going to be ironic when we try and kill her later" Chaos thought to himself "I need to talk to Drexel about Kyro but from the few things I saw about him he at least looks somewhat competent"

A knock on the door distracted him from his thoughts; he put the lacrima in his pocket before going to see who it was. He opened the door to see a visibly drunk Drexel who staggered past him into his room, fell flat on her face, and started giggling.

"I found you! I knew I would find you!" Drexel yelled out loudly

"Sure you did sweetie now did you come here for a reason or are you just drunk?" Chaos said

"I'm here because we're wondering where you were you need to get drunk with us too you know" Drexel said finally getting up to a sitting position

"Well you found me now get out" Chaos said pointing out the door realizing asking her about Kyro would lead to nothing as she was far too drunk

"Come on live a little!" Drexel said standing up offering him the bottle she was holding

"I'll do that later, now out" he said grabbing her and walking her out of his room

"Bu-"Drexel said before the door slammed in front of her face "how rude" she muttered before leaving

Chaos sighed before looking over the lacrima one more time to see if he had missed anything about the new members. As he looked through them and thought deeper he couldn't help but feel that his squad would have trouble with the Councilors who would be difficult to kill. He sighed and wondered if these guys could win against the Councilors, sure some of them had favorable matchups when it came to certain Councilors but…

"There will be some who won't make it out alive… but as long as Kaizus is also dead at the end it doesn't matter" he thought to himself knowing that everyone in the squad was expendable even Mavis.


	14. The Right Hand of the Council

"Even your sister was expendable!?" Lahar asked in a mix of horror and disappointment

"Yeah I just said everyone was expendable including Mavis, what part of that do you not understand?" Chaos asked

"He's just getting used to how your morality works the idea of putting family in danger isn't exactly common to most people" Guran explained

"Well don't you love your sister? How could you put her at risk as her older brother?" Lahar asked

"Because if you truly are fighting for the greater good nobody not even your friends, family, or yourself are to be given special exemption, if their deaths are necessary then it's all good…technically but I kind of ignore the last part" Chaos explained

"In conclusion it's the greater good first as long as he's able to survive at the end of it" Guran concluded

"Exactly, now back to the story" Chaos said with a cheerful look

After some a relaxing dreamless sleep Chaos woke up to get some food and after a nice meal waited in the lobby for the rest of his squad. Despite his earlier worries about whether his squad could kill the Councilors he was content with the fact that they could at least hold their own against the Councilors. Even better news was that now his squad was mostly complete they only needed one more member in order to fight the nine councilors, but he had no idea who to get.

"Hmm let's see now who could I possibly recruit to join us on this mission" Chaos thought deeply "Hmm there's Blaster but he's an idiot who doesn't have much strength, there's Kaylee but I doubt she would be inclined to join a group with Drexel in it. Ah this is too hard!" Chaos thought further before giving up

He sat in the lobby waiting for the rest of the team to show up however he had wished they stayed in bed when he saw each of them. They were all either hung over from last night's partying or in Mavis' case tired from trying to babysit each one of them. They trudged slowly to where Chaos was and took seats around him although they didn't look like they could handle much thinking. Chaos simply shook his head at them and waited a few minutes for them to partially recover before beginning his lecture.

"You guys are all pathetic" Chaos started

"It's not my fault; she forced me to drink all that sake!" Catherine said pointing at Julia

"As the only person who was sober at the end of the day I can safely say that after a while you guys were all freely drinking leaving me to make sure none of you died!" Mavis yelled

"The point is you're all idiots and need to learn responsibility" Chaos finished

"What? You're the king of being an irresponsible idiot!" Mavis and Drexel shouted in unison

"Alright now onto business, first as I have safely assured that we're in privacy we can conduct our discussion as freely as we want. We are actually a bit ahead of schedule from what I had originally hoped for thanks to me and Drexel taking initiative and doing a little recruiting of our own" Chaos said

"Well all I was told was to get the dragon slayer which is what I did" Kazuo objected

"Calm down old timer I simply meant that Drexel and I made the best out of a bad situation" Chaos said calming down Kazuo "Now we still are in need of one more member who's capable of fighting one of the Councilors on an even level or at least distract them for a long time. I'm taking suggestions as I can't think of anyone who would work" Chaos continued

"What about Blaster?" Drexel suggested

"Already thought about him and Kaylee and both won't work. Anyone else?" Chaos answered

For the next ten minutes names were tossed around and Chaos rejected all of them outright for either being too dumb or not powerful enough.

"Come on folks there's got to be somebody who could join the group and actually stand a chance against someone of decent strength and brains" Chaos said exhaustedly

"I have a suggestion!" Mavis exclaimed raising her hand

"You don't need to raise your hand kid just say what you want to say" Chaos said

"Shiori Dreyar!" Mavis said excitedly

"Hell no!" Drexel and Chaos said shutting down the idea

"Why not? He's strong, he's smart enough, and getting him to join our side would really boost the legitimacy of our cause" Mavis explained

"One he's a self-righteous asshole who actually buys all the propaganda the Council puts out about him being key to the peace of the land" Drexel said with disdain

"Even though the assassins are the only thing keeping the Council afloat" Chaos interjected

"Exactly, that and he also tried flirting with me a while back and refuses to believe that anyone can reject him" Drexel continued

"Well in his defense he and his twin sister are one attractive duo" Chaos said dreamily picturing the two in his head

"Who's Shiori?" Julia asked curiously

"Just like the assassins make up the left hand of the Council, Shiori and his troops make up the so called right hand of the Council. Although they do have some strength they actually don't do that much well they do but nothing compared to what the left hand does, but they're much easier to present to the common folks rather than assassins who operate in the shadows" Jax explained

"I actually agree with Mavis I mean the guy might be disagreeable according to you two, but he certainly would boost our cause. If he left the Council there would be some people who might join our side" Catherine said

"That's a good idea and all, but how would we be able to get him to join us" Kazuo asked

"It wouldn't be too hard now that I think about it; I mean the dude hates his sister to death and probably would jump at a chance to join us if it meant bringing her down" Chaos said

"Oh yeah he's been jealous of her ever since she got named Councilor over him" Drexel said

"So why not bring him in he'd be motivated enough" Mavis said

"Because those two hate him almost as much as he hates his sister" Jax explained

"Eh I'm willing to overlook it I mean if the mission ends with him dying or at least admitting that I'm better than him" Chaos said

"I'm still opposed" Drexel said flatly

"Well I was opposed to Kyro but you guys overruled me on that matter" Mavis muttered

"Actually I still haven't approved him joining us yet I still need to talk to Drexel for her evaluation of his use to us. But you still have a point if most of us overrule the objections of another member then we'll take the opinion of the majority" Chaos said

"You mean democracy?" Kyro asked

"Whatever let's put it to a vote all in favor of getting the dick known as Shiori?" Chaos asked, everyone except Drexel raised their hands "Alright Drexel you've been outvoted we'll see if we can get the right hand of the Council to join us"

"This is bullshit" Drexel muttered angrily

"Now how do we find him?" Chaos asked after internally laughing at Drexel's anger

"No idea I've never actually met the guy, but I've always wanted to fight him" Kyro said

"I don't know" Catherine said

"In the sake of time does anyone know where he is? Or how we could find him?" Chaos asked

"Nope" they all said in unison

Chaos shook his head once more which he found himself doing a lot more recently; he now somewhat wished he had listened to Shiori's ramblings about where he lived or what he did or fun although he figured Shiori had that effect on everyone.

"Ah, what luck" Jax muttered

"Why do you say that?" Julia asked

"Because look whose guards just walked in" Jax said pointing at the reception desk

There were two guards dressed in golden armor and armed with very ornate weapons.

"Can they actually use those in battle?" Mavis asked curiously

"Of course not, it's unnecessarily heavy and it doesn't provide any benefits to them" Kazuo answered

In walked in what they all presumed to be Shiori: he was about Chaos' height, had blonde hair that nearly covered his eyes and reached down to the back of his neck, he had a muscular build, and was dressed in fancy looking clothes including a gold trench coat. He walked up the receptionist desk and began conversing with his guards before he talked with the receptionist.

"There you go just stand still for a few more minutes" Drexel muttered keeping her hand pointed at Shiori's head, she was about to fire an _ice dart_ before she got hit on the head with Chaos' sheathed sword

"Bad Drexel" Chaos said as he hit her again until she dropped her hand in disgust "That's a good girl, well like Jax said it was a stroke of luck, coincidence, or fate but we still need to corner him away from his golden boys" Chaos said

"Ha golden boys, still though how are we supposed to get him away from his guards?" Julia asked

"Good question one of you needs to distract the guards or make Shiori go away from his golden boys" Chaos said, he then turned to Drexel and gave her a wide smile

"Why are you looking at me like that Chaos?" Drexel asked getting slightly uncomfortable

"Shiori's affection for you is well documented I'm sure he'd love some alone time with you if you suggested it" Chaos said innocently while handing Drexel the plans

"OH HELL NO!" Drexel shouted "there's no way in hell I'm offering to be alone with that pompous ass for more than three seconds" she continued angrily

"Could that be the lovely voice of Drexel Fullbuster I hear?" Shiori called out

"Oh no, please I'll do anything just keep me away from him!" Drexel pleaded to the group trying to sink into her seat but to no avail as they all smiled at her as Shiori approached her

"Haha it is Drexel how I've missed seeing you, and look it's Chaos and other people I've never met" Shiori said loudly

"Please kill me!" Drexel mouthed to Chaos

"What's that sweetie? You need to speak up" Chaos mouthed back to her

"So what brings you lot to Balsam?" Shiori asked

"What do you think?" Mavis replied sarcastically already realizing why Chaos and Drexel didn't like this man

"Now who's this sweet little girl" Shiori asked annoyed at Mavis' sarcasm

"My little sister" Chaos responded

"You have a sister?" he asked

"Yeah I'd have told you but you kept talking so I couldn't get a word in whenever we talk" Chaos told him

"Is that so maybe you should be more assertive in a conversation"

"Maybe you should stop giving yourself undeserved praise, you don't do crap to help out the world"

"Coming from a dishonorable assassin like yourself, I find it laughable"

"At least I'm the strongest member in my family" Chaos taunted

"Is that so?" Shiori asked, they both stood very close to each other and it looked like they were about to fight, even the guards were too afraid to intervene.

"Hey Shiori how about you and I go out on our own and catch up" Drexel said trying to avoid a conflict between the two

"Ah what a great idea, bye Chaos bye everyone else!" Shiori said walking away with Drexel forgetting about his conflict with Chaos

"Good bye Drexel have fun!" the rest of the group said with a smile even Chaos who also was waving to Shiori

"Son of a bitch those two planned this out didn't they!" Drexel thought to herself getting even angrier at Chaos than she thought possible

She knew that planning her revenge would come second to getting Shiori to join them, what confused her was how Shiori greeted them as he normally did, he should have known about the Council wanting to at least get Chaos which meant he didn't know about the plans. That would make things a lot easier for her in terms of persuading him to join the group; her plan was simple a combination of using his sister jealousy against him would guarantee him joining them if only to prove he was better than his sister and worst case scenario she would have to seduce him.

"So how have you been Shiori I haven't heard from you in a while?" Drexel asked

"I was sent to destroy a couple of dark guilds that had banded together to do some damage way out in Bellum" Shiori answered trying to casually put his arm around Drexel

"That far out? Couldn't they have sent one of the enforcement squads?" Drexel asked casually taking his hand off her shoulder

"That's what I suggested by I was overruled by my sister who said that the last enforcement squad they sent to take out a dark guild got destroyed, so I would be sent just to be safe" he replied clearly annoyed

"Man that sucks you think your sister of all people would take your side" Drexel said realizing that this might be easier than she thought

"I hate that bitch, flaunting around how powerful and better me than is!" Shiori said angrily "I'm just as good as she is and I should have been the one selected for the Council instead of her, she probably gave some 'favors' out to the Chairman" he continued

"Wow this guy is even more fucked up than Kyro" Drexel thought

"Ah, sorry I kind of have some pent up rage I need to work out. The Council's been sending me everywhere they don't even want me to report back to them they just send me on mission after mission. This is the first time in months I've been able to get some vacation time, my guards recommended this place to me" Shiori explained calming down

"Well Shiori I think I know why the Council is trying to keep you away from them for now" Drexel started

"And why is that?" he asked curiously

"Well Chaos and I might have uncovered something dangerous the Council's up to, here are the plans we got from them" Drexel said giving the plans to Shiori who took his time reading them,his face contorted in anger as he read through the plans

"So that's why they've been keeping me away from them" he said darkly

"They didn't want one of their more honorable knights finding about their plans and then raising an uproar" Drexel explained

"That must be it, it has to be it!" he exclaimed

"Yep, definitely more fucked up than Kyro" she thought again "Anyway Chaos has been rounding up a squad with the ultimate goal of taking down the Council and he thought you'd make a perfect addition to the team" she told him

"Hmm the Council needs to be stopped but what are we going to do, perhaps if you, me, and Chaos gather up a squad to take out the Council.." he started

"I just said that we've got a squad and we need one more member and you would be the perfect addition" she repeated at Shiori

"Only if you let me kill my sister!" he answered

"Umm sure" Drexel said worried about Shiori's mental state

They walked back to the rest of the squad with Drexel silently thanking the gods she had prayed to that she wasn't forced to seduce Shiori. Somehow in the five minute she had gone the rest of the squad had already ordered more sake and had gotten drunk, with Mavis being forced to babysit them once more.

"It's not even noon yet why the hell did they get drunk again? I mean I can understand Chaos getting drunk since he was the only sober person yesterday but why everyone else?" Drexel asked Mavis

"We figured you guys would take more time so they ordered more sake to pass the time" Mavis explained while prying Kyro off of Jax

"We were gone for five minutes how did they manage to get drunk in that time?" Drexel asked still confused

"Well they skipped the cups and just drank from the bottle" Mavis answered "Julia stop trying to kill Kazuo! And Catherine stop trying to awkwardly flirt with my brother!" Mavis said running around desperately trying to keep the rest of the squad in line.

"You know Kyro I was wrong about you, I'm sure you're one hell of a fighter which is why I'm letting you on the team!" Chaos said quite loudly

"This is the happiest day in my life!" Kyro responded before falling on the couch and then laughing.

"Sorry about this Shiori but don't' worry these guys are motivated to defeat the Council if a little bit distracted at the moment" she said turning around to talk to Shiori who wasn't there "Shiori? Wait don't encourage them!" she said finding Shiori amidst the partying

"Ah I haven't been able to relax this much in a long time!" he said joining Chaos as they both started singing an old song off key.

Drexel sighed, took a seat, and decided to join the merriment pouring herself some sake and drinking it quickly. The guards for Shiori had now moved wordlessly to keep Shiori and the rest of the group safe although with the way Kazuo and Julia casting spells it was more likely to protect the other patrons. She felt bad for Mavis having to be the responsible person so in the end she called Mavis to her and then forced the remaining sake down Mavis' throat until she got the girl drunk.

"Don't worry kid it'll make you feel better and besides with those guards around you don't need to be sober" Drexel said as she finished pouring the bottle

"My world is spinning!" Mavis said falling down on the floor

"Well all we need is an army now then we'll show those damn Councilors" Chaos thought "But how are we supposed to get one?"


	15. Recruiting an army

"What's so funny?" Chaos asked the laughing Lahar

"Oh nothing, I just find it hilarious that most of your team either doesn't want someone else on the team to be there or just hates them downright. That and you don't seem to think much of some of the members yourself" Lahar explained

"I had to make the best of the bad situation I was put in" Chaos said

"I think it's just even more ironic that the descendents of most of your squad are good friends" Guran said

"What?" Chaos exclaimed "Dear god those poor kids must not know how much their ancestors hated each other" Chaos said worriedly "Well it might be for the best, if they knew they'd have all murdered each other by now" he continued

"Well it's a discussion for another time now if you'd get back to the story" Guran said

"Yeah, let's get back to it" Chaos said

When Chaos finally woke up he found himself sitting in a hot spring with one of Shiori's guards keeping his head from sinking into the water. His head was strangely not hurting at the time as he had somehow managed to avoid drinking too much sake. He signaled to the guard that it was alright to let him go and the guard complied.

"How did I end up here anyway?" Chaos asked the guard

"Well while you were partying with your friends you requested quite forcefully to be taken to the springs so you can get sober faster" The guard answered

"They're not my friends but thanks for getting me here… I think" Chaos said

"No problem now if you'll excuse me I need to go find Shiori and make sure he hasn't died" the guard said leaving

"Wait before you go, how did I end up naked? Did you take my clothes off" Chaos asked curiously

The guard gave him a strange look and then ran off without answering the question, Chaos shrugged and just sunk deeper into the water which had a relaxing effect on him; he shifted his thoughts on how to get an army or at least some people who were willing to fight the Council. He could have started recruiting dark guilds to join them, although he realized that he would be doing exactly what Kaizus wanted to stop so it would only make the Council look good. The "legitimate" magic guilds probably wouldn't want to help if only because they would be scared of ending up like Kazuo's old guild.

"Ah this is too hard. Even if they could get past that fear those legitimate guilds are more concerned with being better than the others anyway so getting one would make an enemy out of the other guilds" Chaos thought frustrated "I don't even know what to do about the independent guilds, I mean there's only like five of them and they're all kind of shady and probably unreliable" he thought further

"Hmm maybe I should be asking Kazuo for advice, the dude did run his own guild for a while so he probably knows how to get people to join and stay" Chaos said to no one in particular "Well I better go find him quick before he decides to drink away his sorrows again"

He got out of the springs, dried himself off, changed into his clothes, and then set off to find Kazuo. It took him a while to find him as the directions the other squad members gave him all led him to nowhere in particular. The last place he went to was Kazuo's room where he probably should have started first to begin with and knocked on the door several times.

"Hey, open up Kazuo I need to talk to you about stuff" Chaos said loudly

"It's unlocked come in" Kazuo said

Chaos opened the door and walked in; Kazuo was sitting on his bed looking out the window, he didn't even glance at Chaos simply motioning for the assassin to sit next to him which Chaos did.

"What do you need to talk about with me?" Kazuo asked

"Before I get to that, any reason why you're staring out a window?" Chaos asked

"Indeed, this is the last place I saw my daughter and my other friends in my guild" Kazuo answered with a sigh

"Umm yeah well I needed to talk to you about the state of our mission" Chaos said immediately regretting the question

"What about it? We have all the members we need unless there are other mages you had in mind" Kazuo remarked

"No mages in mind for me but we still need an army to distract the Council enforcement troops and the rest of their guards" Chaos explained

"That is an important issue. What about talking to mage guilds?" Kazuo suggested

"That won't do: we can't go to the dark guilds for obvious reasons, the independent guilds are few in number and unreliable, and you know the legitimate guilds are far too afraid to challenge the Council ever since the example they made out of your Sabers… sorry" Chaos explained once again regretting his choice of words

"That's true they certainly did send a message with my guild" Kazuo answered looking even more depressed

"Ah look I'm sorry that I mentioned it but don't worry you'll have your revenge soon I promise that, we just need a way to recruit mages and others to our cause" Chaos said trying to prevent Kazuo from crying

"Maybe we should ask the others?" Kazuo suggested

"That won't work: Drexel and Jax are assassins they don't know how to get people to join their cause only how to kill them, Mavis is just a kid, Catherine I doubt could do it either, Kyro just looks like an enforcer" Chaos started

"What about Shiori he does have his own company of soldiers maybe he could convince them to join us?" Kazuo offered

"Why didn't I think of that?" Chaos thought to himself "You're right, Shiori's got a battle hardened squad that's hopefully as pissed at the Council as he is because of being forced to move left and right. I doubt they have the same sister issues that he does but maybe they're loyal to him, but if he had the plans he could more easily convince them" Chaos said

"But how would we go around getting an army if Shiori has the plans more importantly could we trust him with them?" Kazuo asked

"Eh I'll just have Jax make some copies for us so we can give them to Shiori" he suggested

"Wait how can Jax make copies of the plans?" Kazuo asked perplexed

"It's his magic, _Object Multiplication_ he can make unlimited copies of any object as long as he's holding the original in his hand when he's doing it" Chaos explained

"You dumbass why didn't you mention this earlier? We can spread the plans around and make the world know about what the Council is doing!" Kazuo exclaimed

"One problem though, when Jax multiplies an object there's always a flaw in the copy and the more copies he makes the more obvious it gets… I mean really obvious, so obvious a three year old could figure out it's a fake" Chaos said

"Hmm well that puts a damper on my excitement a bit, but still we can still have him make some copies to give to Shiori and some so we can circulate them" Kazuo suggested

"I'm glad I came to you for advice, so where's Jax?" Chaos asked

"No idea" Kazuo aid

"You're useless" Chaos said getting up "I'll go find him myself"

Chaos walked out and began his search for Jax this time starting with his room this time but was disappointed when he wasn't there. It would be difficult as hell trying to find Jax, the man never left a magic trail as he had made so many enemies in his life where staying hidden was easier than killing them all. He wondered if he should have planted tracking lacrima on the rest of the squad just to avoid these situations in the future and resolved to do that later. He walked around the inn while planning the best way to sneak the tracking lacrima on the rest of his squad when he bumped into Catherine knocking her to the ground.

"Ow! Watch where you're going damn it" Catherine muttered in pain "Oh it's you Chaos" she said when she looked up

"Sorry Catherine you know where your uncle is?" Chaos asked

"Did you check his room?" Catherine asked

"Yeah but he wasn't there, any other suggestions?" he responded while helping her up

"Well then I've got nothing I don't really remember much due to the drinking" Catherine said

"You're also useless." Chaos said as he dropped Catherine and left ignoring her angry protests

Chaos now regretted letting the rest of his squad drink while Drexel was "convincing" Shiori to join them probably the first time he had ever regretted drinking. He finally found Jax meditating outside in a secluded grove outside that took a lot of maneuvering to get to and even then Jax didn't look like he was in the mood to talk. He was deep in meditation so Chaos sat down a few feet away from him and waited for Jax to finish his meditating. Minutes went by and Chaos was slowly losing his patience and looking at the plans which he had practically memorized by now wasn't any entertaining at all and so he finally decided on interrupting his Master's meditations.

"Hey old man, I have something to talk to you about!" Chaos called out right in Jax's ear

"First I'm not that old, second if you do that again I'll break your nose, and finally what do you want to talk to me about" Jax warned

"Jeez are old men this sensitive about their age?" Chaos thought "Oh I need you to use your multiplication magic to make more copies of the plans" Chaos said handing the Council plans to Jax

"How many copies do you want? You know that I can't replicate objects perfectly" Jax asked

"I know you can't so all we need is two extra copies of the plans" Chaos told him

"Alright two copies coming up" Jax said, he then held the plans in his right hand while keeping his left hand open he concentrated for a few moments before magic circles appeared over both his hands. The circle above his right hand went down and began scanning the plans, a few seconds later the circle over his left hand began glowing and two copies of the plans were produced, and he gave all three to Chaos.

"Nicely done" Chaos said surveying the two copies and noting flaws when he saw them, he put the second copy and the original plans back in a pocket dimension before turning to leave with the first copy

"May I ask why you needed two copies?" Jax asked before returning to his meditations

"Because I need to give one to Shiori so he can convince his boys and girls to join us, and the second copy is for emergency reasons" Chaos explained

"You really trust Shiori to do what you say?" Jax asked

"Of course not, I don't trust anyone fully for that matter but as you can see we're in need of troops to join us and Shiori's battle hardened troops make the perfect addition" Chaos answered

"What makes you think he won't sell us out to the Council?" Jax pressed on

"The man hates his sister and wants her dead to prove he's the better sibling, yes I know he's messed up but we're the only good chance he has to even get that opportunity. He needs to stick with us" Chaos explained with a smirk

"I still think you're making a mistake in giving him this role" Jax said

"I've got everything planned out don't you worry Jax all you have to do is listen to what I say and we'll be golden" Chaos said getting annoyed with Jax

"If you say so don't come crying to me if he screws us all over" Jax said now going into his meditations

"I don't cry I get revenge." Chaos muttered darkly before leaving

Chaos was slowly getting tired of Jax the only reason he recruited Jax in the first place was because of his unique magic, object multiplication had its uses and now was one of them. However that didn't mean Chaos had to like Jax's attitude, in fact he pretty much didn't like anything about his former master. The man was set in his stupid ways: things like honor, fairness, and telling the truth; things that Chaos had deliberately ignored or become the opposite of those ideals, probably why the two didn't get along. However Chaos knew that even before he became like this Jax didn't like him for whatever reason and took it out on him during his training, granted it did make him a much better fighter because of it but he still hated Jax. But he had to focus on the mission right now instead of Jax so he went about trying to find Shiori.

"Shiori shouldn't be too hard to find, either he's flirting with Drexel or he's out cold somewhere because of Drexel" Chaos thought to himself

It took him a while but eventually he found him out cold near a wall that had several holes in it along with shards of ice around Shiori. Chaos sighed and hoped Drexel hadn't given Shiori too much brain damage although he couldn't blame her for doing this as everyone wanted to throw Shiori into a wall at least once. He went close to Shiori's body and began prodding it with his hidden blade and finally he noticed a twitch in the body to the fifth poke, he knelt down next to Shiori and tried different ways to wake him up.

"Oy Shiori wake up!" he said loudly while slapping Shiori multiple times "Hmm slapping clearly isn't working… then again I do need to work off some stress so I suppose a few more slaps or hard punches won't kill him" Chaos thought as continued hitting Shiori, finally waking him up after a few minutes of continuous slapping that had left a hand print in both of Shiori's cheeks.

"What year is it?" Shiori asked groggily

"The same as it was yesterday now get up I need you to do something for me" Chaos said bluntly

"Don't talk so loud my head hurts like hell and my face too. Jeez Drexel didn't need to throw me into a wall seven times if she didn't want to go out to dinner she could have said no" Shiori said holding his head

"I'm pretty sure she did and you just didn't allow yourself to hear it" Chaos told him "Now here" he said shoving the first copy of the Council plans into Shiori's face

"I've already seen the plans, why are you giving them to me?" Shiori asked with his voice slightly muffled by the papers

"Take them to your squad and convince them to join us" Chaos explained

"Why not just show it to the Council guards or the whole world?" Shiori asked

"Because the Council has far more support than you'd imagine, every kingdom in all of Earthland supports them in one way or another. They're not going to suddenly leave them due to some plans the Council could explain away, we need to let the Council think everything is safe for now before we make our move" Chaos answered

"Then why would my troops join us?" Shiori asked

"Do I really need to answer this question? They're probably just as pissed as you are for being sent all over the world to quell rebellions, they're the elite soldiers not police officers so just play to that and tell them why you joined us. If they're loyal to you they'll go along with what you say" Chaos explained hurriedly

"That makes sense I guess but where should I meet with you guys after I get them to join us?" Shiori asked

"Oh somewhere I still haven't decided yet" Chaos said vaguely

"Well there's got to be somewhere right?" Shiori pressed on

"Not really you are going to have the delightful task of keeping me informed of what the Council is doing so we can plan accordingly" Chaos said patting Shiori on the shoulder to put the tracking lacrima on the unsuspecting warrior.

"What! I'm a warrior not a spy besides why should I put my life at risk when this squad has assassins who are better suited to the job!" Shiori protested

"You tell me how either me, Drexel, or Jax all former assassins that no longer in Council service and in my case a wanted criminal could even get through the front door of the Council Building let alone close enough to the Councilors to figure out what they're doing. Besides the Council doesn't know you've joined us and the so called 'Right Hand of the Council' should be able to get close to the Councilors don't you think? Besides if you go missing people will really get suspicious" Chaos explained

"I mean-"Shiori started

"Assuming you don't royally fuck up and basically admit you've switched sides somehow if you do then don't expect any help from us" Chaos said with a smile

"Me, fuck up? Who do you think you're talking to? I'm the guy who has single handedly crushed so many dark guilds in my life that I've lost count, the one who controls the Dancing Blades, you think I'd mess up in a mission as important as this" Shiori said boastfully

"Oh Shiori you're so easy to play with" Chaos thought "See Shiori if anything you're slightly overqualified for the job now go get 'em Tiger!" Chaos said giving a pat on Shiori's back

Shiori excitedly got moving quickly a bit too quickly for someone who had suffered massive head trauma recently and he quickly passed out a few feet away from Chaos. Chaos sighed picked him up, took him to his room, and then dropped him on his bed.

"I'm sure he'll remember what happened when he wakes up" Chaos muttered as he left the room and noticed that Drexel was watching him a few feet away

"What have you two been talking about when nobody's around?" Drexel asked suspiciously

"Oh you know guy stuff, like how you managed to give him seven concussions in a row" Chaos lied

"He deserved every one, the man's a pain in the ass and doesn't know the meaning of the word no. A little physical punishment never hurt anyone did it?" Drexel replied still annoyed at Shiori "Still I know how much you hate him too, what were you really talking about?" Drexel asked

"Nothing you need to concern yourself about ice mage" Chaos said dismissively trying to move past her

"Don't ice mage me if we're going to succeed we need to work together and that means no secrets especially when it comes to the mission" Drexel said blocking him

"Work together? You all just need to do what I say and then we'll be fine" Chaos laughed as he took a few steps back

"You think you're that good huh? Well whatever you and blondie were talking about over there just don't come crying to me when he screws us all over" Drexel warned

"Now you sound like Jax, maybe you two should start a club" Chaos said

"He's right you know. You're basically relying on Shiori's hate of his sister to keep him loyal and that's dangerous as hell" Drexel explained

"I have ways of controlling everyone, even you" he said as he walked towards Drexel who immediately took a defensive posture

"What the hell are you doing?" Drexel said sensing a dangerous aura from Chaos

"Oh nothing" Chaos said with a smile as he suddenly moved forward giving Drexel a kiss on her lips before she could do anything which froze her for a moment before she pushed him away from him

"Try that again and it's your face that'll be gone" Drexel said angrily

"Oh please, I'm just showing you I control people" Chaos replied with a confident smirk

"With romance? Because if that's your ace in the hole you suck at it" Drexel said wiping her lips

"No by this" Chaos said

He snapped his fingers and suddenly a magic circle appeared over Drexel's face and brought a look of fear to her face.

"What the hell are you doing!" she exclaimed

"I don't know. What am I doing?"


	16. Tartaros

"You better defuse this circle or I will fucking end you!" Drexel screamed at Chaos who was still smiling at her

"Haha it looks like you don't understand leverage at all Drexel let me explain the one who with a mere thought can blow your face up killing you on the spot has the leverage." Chaos said

"You realize killing me would deny you a capable squad member" Drexel said starting to get desperate

"Everyone's expendable even you, there are so many either ice mages just as capable as you are and even more regular mages who could do what I need you to do" Chaos said dismissing her threat

"What the hell are you trying to prove anyway? That you can control me? Even if you let me out of this you can be damn sure I'm not working with you after this" Drexel said angrily

"You realize even if I let you go now the seal will always be on you and unless you know any good exorcists it's going to be stuck on you for the rest of your life… you're under my control until I feel like letting you go" Chaos explained to Drexel before he suddenly snapped his fingers once more and the circle disappeared surprising Drexel

"Don't worry Drexel looking for a replacement would require effort on my part something I'd rather not do at this point, I just needed to teach you a lesson and by the look of your face I can see it hit home hard." Chaos said turning around to leave

Drexel was still too shocked to come up with a response so she let him walk away while she was still replaying what just happened in her head. She finally snapped out of it, cursed Chaos out, and then walked back to her room still angry about what happened. She made it back to her room and lied down on her bed wondering about Chaos' motives.

"Why the hell is my hand still shaking?" Drexel said looking at her right hand "For a second there I think he actually wanted to kill me, I knew I shouldn't have come why didn't I listen to my instincts" she muttered to herself

"You know my brother says that humans don't actually have instincts, that it's actually just reflexes we train really well to the point that it looks like instinct" Mavis said surprising Drexel and causing her to sit up quickly

"How long have you been standing there?" Drexel asked

"Long enough to know you and my brother had a fight" Mavis replied

"Not much of a fight, it was more him showing off" Drexel muttered "You can come in you know" she continued

"What happened?" Mavis asked taking a seat next to Drexel

"He just wanted to show how he could control the rest of the squad if necessary, he used me as the example" Drexel answered

"Why would he use you?" Mavis asked curiously

"Because he knows that everyone else knows that I know him the best so if I disagree with him then I probably have good reasons to do so. But if I support him for the rest of the mission then the rest of the squad is bound to fall in line regardless of what they actually think about the plan" Drexel explained confusing Mavis slightly

"But you two have been in agreement so far haven't you?" Mavis asked

"That's because we're in the early stages, we can all agree on needing a good squad and an army to fight the Council. But later on when plans that might border on the unethical come up he wants my support to make sure the squad falls in line. It's actually smart on his part I just wished he picked a different way to get my support" Drexel explained

"He wouldn't do anything bad he's a good person deep down" Mavis said

"Face it kid your brother deep down is an ass there's really no other way of saying it. He likes you so he probably won't put you in danger but the rest of us except Kazuo maybe are expendable in his mind, it's just who he is. And the only reason Kazuo is safe is because I don't think Chaos could find another Wizard Saint to replace him" Drexel said bluntly

"You're wrong, he found me after my town got destroyed and I was all alone and he took care of me like I was family to him" Mavis said

"Well I'll never know why he did that but just know that what he did back then was more the exception rather than the rule" Drexel explained

"I think you're being too hard on him. He is after all the one who discovered what the Council is doing and you agreed with him enough to put a stop to it so I think we should at least work together for the time being. After it's all done you can do whatever you want" Mavis said

"That's true I guess, whatever your brother's reasons for doing this as long as the Council is stopped then I really don't care" Drexel said "So why did you end up coming here anyway?" Drexel asked

"He sent me to make sure you weren't still pissed at him, oh and that we're all meeting up in a few minutes so get moving!" Mavis said happily

"That bastard using his adorable sister to keep me in line, but I suppose it is my fault for falling prey to her innocence" Drexel thought to herself "Fine I'll be there soon" Drexel said lying back down

"He said come now and if you weren't going to show up then I was supposed to bring you here by force" Mavis warned

"Tell him to do it himself if he wants me to show up I'm tired and still kind of pissed at him for nearly exploding my face" Drexel muttered ignoring Mavis

"We're doing this the hard way then" Mavis told Drexel "_Light bind"_ she said and immediately several light rods appeared from the magic circle over her hand and came together at Drexel's midsection preventing her from moving

"Take this spell off me now!" Drexel exclaimed angrily

"Drexel do you still not understand what leverage is? You must be uncommonly dense" Mavis said picking Drexel up and walking out the door

"And you're uncommonly strong" Drexel thought

Mavis walked back to the lobby still shouldering Drexel who was still stuck and had stopped cursing and demanding to be let go. The rest of the squad was there and Kazuo, Shiori, and Chaos began laughing at sight of Drexel being carried in by Mavis who threw her on one of the empty spot in the couch, got rid of the _light bind_, and then sat next to her smiling.

"Alright everyone's here let's start the meeting" Mavis said happily

"You all suck" Drexel said angrily at the three members still laughing

"Well maybe you should have come peacefully then" Kazuo laughed

"Shut up how should I have known she could do that?" Drexel asked

"You weren't supposed to know, maybe you should be more cooperative next time before underestimating a teenager" Chaos said with a smile

"Wow taken down by a kid, you know Drexel I'm starting to wonder how you nearly beat me" Kyro said also laughing

"Oh haha, let's everyone laugh at my misery. How about we just conduct the fucking meeting" Drexel said seething with rage

"Yes we can all laugh at Drexel later we have more important things to talk about right now which is the need of an army as has been made quite obvious if anyone didn't figure it out on their own. We already have Shiori 'volunteering' to get the troops he's in charge of to join us and to also spy on the Councilors and give us reports about their progress of the ritual" Chaos started

"Didn't you say we had some time before they started the ritual? What's the point of spying on them then" Catherine asked

"The point my dear, is to make sure they haven't changed anything since they know I have the plans right now. Knowing Kaizus he probably has a backup plan in mind just in case which is why we need someone on the inside to keep us informed, and Shiori makes the most sense" Chaos answered

"Alright so we have his squad but I doubt we can stop the Councilors with just them, especially since the Council is bound to receive extra support from other Kingdoms if they ask for it" Jax said

"So basically we have to be quiet enough to not frighten the Council into asking for extra troops to protect the building, but loud enough to get people to join us" Julia said

"Wow she may not be as dumb as I thought" Chaos thought slightly impressed "Indeed that is our dilemma at the moment does anyone know what an appropriate amount of noise to make would be?" Chaos asked

"Well first can we stop speaking in metaphors?" Catherine asked

"Aw, but metaphors are fun" Chaos complained

"It'll be easier if we speak like normal people" Julia said

"Fine" Chaos muttered

"How about we ask the dark guilds for help I'm sure they'd love to stick it to the Council" Julia suggested but noted that everyone was giving her a disapproving stare "Because you know…" she started unsure

"Someone hit her…now!" Chaos commanded which was met by both Catherine and Shiori hitting Julia in the back of the head knocking her down "Alright Julia is no longer allowed to speak until the meeting is done" Chaos declared

"What? That's not fair!" Julia protested

"Again!" Chaos commanded loudly and once again Julia was hit in the head by both Shiori and Catherine

"Now you'll realize I'm serious about the no speaking rule and just to speed things up Kazuo and I have both talked about asking other guilds for help and we agreed that it wouldn't work" Chaos said, Julia wanted to protest but right as she was about to both Catherine and Shiori had raised their hands and she stayed silent with her arms crossed in front of her in a huff.

"What about if we make our own guild?" Mavis suggested and was met with curious stares by the rest of the squad "So you know if we recruit mages to join us the Council won't be too suspicious because that's what a guild should do…" she continued slowly getting quieter by the end of her suggestion "I'll be quiet now"

"No no that's not it I'm just wondering why nobody but you suggested it" Chaos said

"Well I was going to unti- ouch stop it!" Julia started before getting interrupted by two blows to our head by the now smiling Catherine and Shiori

"Are all dragon slayers this dumb?" Kyro asked

"No just this one apparently" Jax said

"But back to the guild thing it is a decent suggestion… but does anyone here know how to start a guild" Drexel asked

"Well I was the Master of a famous guild for quite some time" Kazuo replied

"She asked if anyone knows how to start a guild. When did you start one thirty years ago? I'm pretty sure you don't even remember how you did it old timer" Shiori said condescendingly

"You punk why don't you say that to my face, and I'm only in my forties I'm not that old" Kazuo threatened

"Both you shut up now! Jax is clearly the oldest person on this squad there's no arguing that" Chaos said causing Jax to give him an annoyed stare "Anyway I'm sure Kazuo does remember how to start a guild and he's going to be the Master of it" Chaos continued ignoring Jax even though his former master had his hand on his sheathed katana

"Why am I the Master you're the one who put this squad together didn't you?" Kazuo asked surprised that Chaos would name him Master

"Oh I'll still be leading it from the shadows but the Council has to verify that we're a legitimate guild, and since I'm the only one here who's wanted I can't be the Master" Chaos explained

"He is right Kazuo you're the only one who makes sense besides it's not like any of us could do any better I think we'd all be lost if we were in charge of a guild" Drexel said

"Fine I accept even though it's more of a symbolic role" Kazuo said trying to downplay the nomination

"You're not just a figure head Kazuo you're going to make sure this guild is the perfect combination of adhering to the Council's will and having some fun on the side in order to get more people to join our cause" Chaos said

"I know, I know don't worry" Kazuo said

"You sure we can trust him after all this guy was the one who wouldn't keep his last guild in line and we all know what happened" Shiori interjected

"See this is why I didn't want him with us" Drexel mouthed to Chaos

"Still can't hear you" he mouthed back

"This time we'll make sure we don't get on the Council's bad side until necessary everyone except you will be making sure we're acting in our best behavior" Jax said trying to calm the situation down

"How do we know that? We all know that he's probably still angry at the Council and is only here for revenge, what if he screws it all up because of that?" Shiori pressed on accusatorily

"Enough!"Julia said suddenly smashing the table in the middle of the couches with a hard punch and releasing some of her aura causing Shiori to back down a bit. "Look the majority has spoken and you've had your chance to speak for yourself the decision is final, but if you still insist on dissent then how about you talk to my fist?" Julia told Shiori who took a moment to think before backing down

"Objections withdrawn" Shiori stated quietly before sitting down

"Well now that's all settled all we need is the name of the guild before we send Kazuo here to file the necessary paperwork" Chaos said trying to move past the tension

"Why do I have to file the paperwork?" Kazuo protested

"Duh because you're the only one who knows what he's doing. Haven't you figured that out yet?" Mavis asked to Kazuo who simply gave an annoyed grunt

"Alright names anyone" Chaos started

"I know how about Fairy Tail!" Mavis suggested

"No!" Everyone said in unison

"Why not?" she asked somewhat hurt

"Too weak sounding" Kyro said

"Sounds like a kid's guild" Drexel said

"What are we a story now?" Jax asked

"No tail like do fairies have tails or not?" Mavis explained

"What the hell does that even mean?" Julia asked confused

"You know it's just a fun question to ask little kids" Mavis explained

"Hell no" Chaos said

"But why?" Mavis asked even more hurt now

"Because I think it sounds stupid and so does everyone here so until we decide on a name you are hereby banned from making suggestions" Chaos declared

"That's not fai- Ouch!" Mavis started before getting hit on the head by Drexel

"The rules apply even to you my adorable little sister" Chaos said ignoring Mavis' evil eye "Any actual suggestions?" Chaos asked and was met with silence

"Fine then I'll pick… Tartaros" he declared after the silence was getting awkward even for him

"That place where the gods put the Titans after they kicked their gigantic asses?" Kyro asked

"Yeah something like that" Chaos dismissed

"Like we're going to be like the titans? Or are we going to do that to the Councilors who are the metaphorical titans? And are we going to put the Councilors in prison after we beat them?" Drexel asked

"The second one… I think, and maybe about the prison thing depends on if the fights end up with them dying or not" Chaos said getting confused "Point is we're the renegades who'll bring them down alright now that we got the name down we need to get the paperwork the most necessary yet mundane portion of our plan" he continued looking directly at Kazuo who nodded at him

"I'll also need some people to come with me just to show the Council it's not just me starting the guild" Kazuo said

"Catherine and Mavis can go with you" Chaos said

"Why me?" Mavis asked

"Because we need someone to keep Kazuo from getting wasted and since you effectively denied Drexel from getting drunk you're the most qualified" Chaos said while Drexel nodded in agreement

"What? But how am I supposed to have fun" Kazuo asked desperately

"You'll have to ask Catherine I'm sure she knows the perfect combination of adult and kid friendly fun" Jax said approvingly

"Thank… I think" Catherine said unsure if her uncle had complimented her

"Well you three have fun then" Chaos said waving at them

"Are we supposed to leave now?" Kazuo asked

"Yes… isn't that obvious?" Chaos said still waving

"Shouldn't we get some communications lacrima this time?" Mavis asked

"Already beat you to it" Chaos said taking out a bag filled with communications lacrima

"Umm we probably only need one you know" Catherine said

"Nonsense I know that Jax here is going to want to talk to you so you should get your own, I'll be checking up on my sister to see if she's wine blocking Kazuo, and then there's the official one used to talk about missions" Chaos said indiscriminately handing out lacrima to the three

"Makes sense I guess" Mavis said throwing her lacrima up in the air and then catching it until Kazuo reached over and grabbed it

"Be careful kid these things are expensive" Kazuo said

"Not these ones I borrowed them off a Council warehouse a few years back, I figured I'd need them eventually" Chaos explained

"You borrowed these just because you thought you might need them in the future" Julia asked incredulously

"Nobody plays for the long run like I do and that includes our 'glorious' chairman" Chaos bragged

"Now you three go off!" Kyro said pointing at the door

"We need to get our stuff first you know" Mavis said

"Right do that, then go off!" Chaos said

"What about those of us who aren't going to the Council to get the paperwork" Drexel asked

"Eh we'll go looking for a building to call our headquarters" Chaos offered

"How about Magnolia Town the weather's pretty decent and it's not that big a place so I'm sure we could easily carve out a niche there" Kyro suggested

"A niche?" Shiori asked

"You know like a place where we'd be the dominant guild and stuff" Kyro explained

"Ah that makes sense" Shiori said

"So should I tell the Council our headquarters are in Magnolia Town then?" Kazuo asked

"Yeah sure we'll give you the specifics later" Chaos said and everyone began leaving "Shiori wait I need to talk to you first" he called out

"What is it this time?" Shiori asked getting slightly frustrated

"Calm down goldilocks, I just need you to subtly drop these plans off somewhere our Chairman can get to" Chaos said handing the second copy of the plans to Shiori

"So wait I'm keeping the first copy and giving this copy away?" Shiori asked

"Not giving just dropping it off subtly" Chaos said

"Why?" Shiori asked

"It'll get Kaizus off my back for once" Chaos said "Just do it" he ordered

"Whatever" Shiori said walking away

At that the meeting was adjourned and everyone went back to their rooms to pack their things up and prepare for their respective journeys. Shiori was to go on his own to the Council as he might have aroused suspicion from the Council if he went with Kazuo's group so he was the first to leave with his two guards. The road to the Council was a long one and it gave him plenty of time to think about the mission and time to look over the plans. He looked over the first copy which Chaos had told him was the better one and it only made him even angrier at the Council.

"They tossed my squad around just so I wouldn't find out about this?" he thought and looked over all the Councilors' signatures on the plans indicating their support and his eye immediately was drawn to his sister's "They're going to regret choosing Chelsea over me, and she's definitely going to regret doing this and then putting my troops at risk just so I wouldn't find out" Shiori muttered darkly


	17. Shiori and the Chairman

It was past midnight when Shiori and his two guards made it back to the Council building. The Council guards were surprised to see him back so soon from his vacation, his guards were both exhausted having been forced to continue lest Shiori abandon them and collapsed at the entrance. Shiori ignored them, continued past the Council guards who tried to ask what he was doing back in the building, and stepped onto one of the magic elevators.

"Commander Dreyar the Councilors have already left for the night!" one of the guards shouted up at Shiori

"I don't care I have a delivery for the Chairman" Shiori answered back to the guard

He got off after he reached his desired floor and made his way to the Chairman's office walking past the surprised guards. He was a bit surprised as he never remembered there being this many guards in the building before. It was obvious they were preparing for something to happen and were making sure nobody would stop them, nothing he didn't know already. He went to the Chairman's office and was about to slide the copy of the plans under the door when he noticed the lights were still on.

"Hmm did he forget to turn them off or is Kaizus actually in there right now, and if he is should I give him the plans anyway" Shiori thought unsure of what to do at this moment "If I give him the plans personally he'll certainly wonder how I got them and might connect me to Chaos" he thought further deciding to hide the plans in his shirt pocket, right as he did though the door opened and Kaizus stepped out and looked at Shiori curiously

"Command Dreyar back from your leave so soon?" he asked to the startled Shiori

"What do you think?" Shiori asked trying to maintain his composure

"Well it looks like you're done with your leave, but I thought I heard a noise nearby so I stepped out to investigate. Did you hear anything?" Kaizus asked

"Not really Chairman I just walked in here" Shiori answered

"I must be getting paranoid then" Kaizus muttered

"Well you are the Chairman so I don't really blame you for being worried about things" Shiori said with a reassuring smile

"Things are just so stressful right now Shiori it's actually nice to see you back so soon, your troops have been complaining what with the constant assignments they've been given so it would be nice if you could settle them down" Kaizus said in a tired voice

"Don't worry about them Chairman I'll talk to them tomorrow, but you really should get some sleep you sound like you've been up the past few days" Shiori recommended

"Maybe you're right Shiori but I still have some work to do" Kaizus said

"Maybe I could help you out just to speed up the process" Shiori said soothingly

"That sounds lovely but I really can't accept your offer its Chairman stuff so you don't need to help me out" Kaizus said with a weak smile

"Nonsense I want to help you out" Shiori said moving past Kaizus who didn't even try stopping him

"Wow this place is a mess" Shiori observed

"Cleaning takes too much time" Kaizus said walking back in "So about helping me out?" he asked

"Umm yeah I'm starting to think that a single night might not be enough time to clean this place or find any lost papers… I doubt an army can clean this mess up anytime soon" Shiori answered "Wait in this mess I'm sure I could sneak the plans in here, just got to make sure the Chairman doesn't notice until after I leave" he thought

"Crap now where did I put those requisition forms?" Kaizus said exasperatedly and dropped to the floor to look through the papers

"Requisition forms?" Shiori asked also dropping down to check

"Yeah I figured we'd need some more support so I was going to ask a couple of Kingdoms for some extra soldiers maybe even ask Fiore for their Executioners" he explained

"For what?" Shiori asked as he subtly dropped the copy of the plans into the pile of papers on the ground "Also Executioners?"

"Yeah they're supposed to be a secret bunch but nobody can hide a group that powerful from our gaze so if I need them I'll ask for 'em." Kaizus answered at this point lying on the ground rather than searching for those forms

"For what stuff do we need them for Chairman… Chairman?" Shiori pressed on before he realized Kaizus was sound asleep on the floor "Damn he really did work himself to exhaustion I suppose there is something to respect about that… but what am I supposed to do with him? I mean I could try to kill him but is he really out? I mean if I try will he suddenly get up and kill me?" Shiori wondered unsure of what to do

Eventually he decided to pick up the Chairman who was still sleeping on the floor to take him to a better place to sleep; when he did he noticed Kaizus had opened his eyes.

"Umm what are you doing Shiori?" Kaizus asked with a blank expression

"Carrying you to a place to sleep" Shiori answered unsurely

"Ah, well thanks but I think I can find a place on my own" Kaizus said

"Umm sure" Shiori said letting Kaizus down who took a few steps before collapsing on the floor asleep "Damn it Kaizus" Shiori exclaimed as he went over to pick the fallen Chairman up who promptly woke up when Shiori picked him up

"Umm what are you doing Shiori?" Kaizus asked once again with a blank look

"Carrying you so you can find a good place to sleep" Shiori answered getting a bit annoyed

"I can find my own place you know" Kaizus said

"No you can't Chairman you're just going to collapse again" Shiori said walking to the magic elevator

"When did I collapse?" Kaizus asked now resigned to being carried

"About five seconds ago when you said you could find your way and then I let you go" Shiori answered

"Ah" Kaizus said then went back to sleep which caused Shiori to give a deep sigh

"I still have no idea how he became Chairman" Shiori muttered to himself

They finally made it down to the ground floor and Shiori began looking for a place to drop off Chairman; he went to the lobby couches and gently put the Chairman down on the pillow although the moment he did it Kaizus immediately grabbed Shiori by the neck and put him in a solid chokehold leaving Shiori gasping for air.

"Chairman what are you doing?" Shiori gasped trying to get the Chairman to let go

"You thought it would be this easy to kill me assassin?" Kaizus yelled out in his sleep immediately catching the attention of the guards who rushed to see what the commotion was

"Chairman it's me Shiori! You know the Right Hand of the Council!" Shiori yelled out slowly succumbing to Kaizus

"Hmm, oh it's you Shiori… what are you doing here?" Kaizus asked waking up and letting Shiori go without realizing he had choked him

"You just tried to kill me!" Shiori exclaimed angrily

"Now why would I do that?" Kaizus wondered for a moment before going back to sleep

"Idiot" Shiori muttered before deciding it was safer to leave and go back to his house to get some sleep however was surprised to feel a vibration in his shirt pocket and see a communications lacrima "When did I get this?" Shiori muttered

"Yo Shiori glad to see you found the lacrima I snuck on you!" Chaos called happily

"When did you sneak this on me?" Shiori asked incredulously

"Sometime after Drexel smashed you into a wall" Chaos answered "Point is you have it and I want you to report to me every once in a while on your progress" he continued

"What if they find it? Then I'm fucked" Shiori asked

"Just hide it isn't it obvious? Anyway did you drop off the plans like I asked you to?" Chaos said

"Yes I dropped off the plans and I also nearly got killed by the chairman!" Shiori exclaimed

"Did he figure out you were working for me?" Chaos asked worriedly

"If I was figured out how would I have made it back to talk to you?" Shiori asked getting angry at Chaos

"I don't know maybe you just wanted to make your last call to me" Chaos offered

"No you idiot, the Chairman nearly killed me because he was exhausted and thought I was an assassin trying to kill him while he was asleep" Shiori explained

"Well did you try to kill him?" Chaos asked

"No! Because I thought he would kill me if I tried!" Shiori answered in disbelief

"Oh come are you afraid of the Chairman" Chaos mocked

"Maybe, look point is I didn't try to kill him, oh and one more thing apparently he's been asking for extra support from the Kingdoms of Earthland, including some group called the 'Executioners' from Fiore" Shiori said

"Oh them? Yeah don't worry about them anyone of us could take them out on our own they're an overrated bunch" Chaos dismissed

"If you say so… anything else?" Shiori asked

"Nah dude go to sleep you sound like you need it" Chaos said before hanging up

Shiori sighed put the lacrima down on a chair before lying down on his bed and going to sleep. He woke up the next morning, put on a change of clothes, and then headed off to the Council Building to talk to his troops. From what Kaizus told him they were as mad as he was for being sent all over Earthland to put down simple dark guilds and the occasional rebellion. On the way there he noticed Kazuo's group eating lunch at a nearby restaurant but didn't stop to greet them as he was told to avoid contact with any Tartaros members… except Chaos apparently. He finally made his way to the barracks where his troops were all gathered talking to each other, some sleeping, and others playing games.

"Glad to see you guys are able to relax after the hell we've been through" he said with a smile, at this all of the soldiers except one woman immediately jumped to attention at their commander's voice

"Commander Dreyar, what are you doing back so soon from your vacation?" the woman asked while reading her magazine

"Oh you know those spas got all the stress out of me in one go, what are you up to Leftenant that's so important you can't stand up at your commander's voice" Shiori answered

"Well you didn't give an order out, all you did was make a general comment so I figured I didn't need to stand" she commented

"That makes sense… you know you guys can go back to doing whatever you were doing" Shiori told the rest of his soldiers, they nodded and gave him a salute before returning to their conversations

He walked to where his second in command was sitting and sat across from her although she didn't give any signal acknowledging his presence. Shiori stared at her as she read her magazine ignoring him entirely; she had black hair that she kept short barely reaching to the top of her neck, light colored skin, dark brown eyes with a scar just above her left eye that just missed taking it out, she was also fairly pretty but tended to wear drab clothing to draw less attention to herself. It didn't matter to him though she was a deadly fighter who always had his back during their battles and she had never lost a fight in her life, quite a capable lieutenant in his mind even more impressive was that she was only seventeen.

"What do you want Shiori?" she asked still reading the magazine

"Just checking up on how my second in command is doing" Shiori said with a smile slightly annoyed her casualness

"Fine I guess, how'd I do?" she asked uninterestedly

"It wasn't an evaluation I'm just wondering if everything's alright with you" he answered

"Everything's not alright with me I mean I still wonder about my dead parents sometimes and how much I wish I'd get promoted already" she answered

"Caylee did I ever tell you how depressing it is talking to you, and how sometimes I wish you wouldn't be so frank with your desire to leave my command" Shiori said slightly hurt inside

"No offense commander but being under you tends to get tiring after a while" Caylee replied

"Well that's because I'm technically under the command of the Councilors and they're making us go all over the place so I'm just as tired as you are" he said

"Not that tired if you're done with your vacation so soon" she retorted

"Look point is I do have a plan on how to resolve our ire with the Council" he said getting serious

"Oh yeah, what is it?" she asked putting her magazine down to look Shiori in his eyes clearly interested

"First I want to know something. Kaizus has told me the troops are angry at their recent deployments, just how angry are they?" he asked

"Hey guys how pissed are you at the Council?" she yelled out startling Shiori

"Very!" they replied

"Well there's your answer" she said with a slight smile

"Well that's good to know, anyway I may have visited someone who might have an idea on what we can do to get back at the Council" he said quietly

"Who is this someone?" Caylee asked with her normal tone

"Keep it down… it happens to be Chaos" Shiori said quietly

"You mean the guy who's wanted by the Council right now?" Caylee asked blankly

"Facts just simple facts. Point is I might have agreed to work with him because the Council's doing some shady things right now which is why we've been tossed around the whole world so we wouldn't find out" Shiori said "These plans will prove it" he continued giving her the copy of the plans he had which she took and began reading, after a few minutes she gave them back and sighed before looking back at Shiori

"Ancients? One government under Kaizus… this really is some messed up stuff right here. Worst part is all of them agreed to do it guess you were right about your sister in the end Shiori" she said

"Exactly that's why I agreed to do this and why I need to make sure I have you on board with the plan so the rest of the squad will agree to it" Shiori said

"Chaos… of all the people you could have worked with Shiori you picked the most dangerous man?" Caylee asked

"Everything's under control" Shiori said

"That's what it looks like, but trust me he's just going to use you in the end and even sacrifice us if he deems it necessary" she warned

"Well that's why I need you to join us Caylee, you actually know how to spot bad intel even if it looks great" Shiori said

"That's true and I guess I do have some responsibility to keep you safe Shiori… but just be sure that you don't let your hatred of your sister get the better of you" she said ominously

"Don't worry about that I can control myself now all I need to do is make an impassioned speech to get the rest of the troops on board and then we'll be golden" he said getting up

"Hey everyone, the commander's got something to say to you all he told me it's going to be all dramatic and shit so be sure to listen!" she yelled out once again "Well they're all yours"

"Everyone during my vacation I discovered something that just made my blood boil and is sure to make all of you well pissed off at our Councilors even more than you already are. Apparently while they've been sending us all over the world to put down simple rebellions, they've been plotting behind our backs to try and take over the world" Shiori said causing most of his troops to whisper to each other, he waited for a bit before continuing "Now I know most of you are wondering if it's true well I have proof that they're doing this, stolen plans that have been signed by each of the Councilors" he said holding the plans out for his troops to see

"And what's worse the Councilors have talked about killing those who are unnecessary after they have unlocked Ancient powers to fulfill their takeover of the world! This means us!" Caylee exclaimed causing uproar from the soldiers

"They think they can just get rid of us after all we've done for them!" one of the soldiers yelled

"When did they say that?" Shiori asked to Caylee quietly

"They didn't" Caylee said with sly look on her face

"Thanks I guess" Shiori said "Are we going to stand for this?" he asked loudly

"Hell no!" the soldiers replied in unison

"Exactly, and know that there are others like us who have discovered the Council's treachery and have agreed to join us in our cause to overthrow this corrupt Council!" Shiori said to loud applause from his soldiers "But until that time has come I ask all of you to maintain the guise of loyalty for now, when our allies have finished gathering more reinforcements we will make our move" he finished

The troops burst into even louder applause and all rushed to congratulate their commander and to take a look at the plans. Shiori was forced to regain control of the troops having to remind them that the Council guards might wonder what all the noise is and investigate, eventually Caylee had to pull out her gun fire a shot into the air to silence the troops and ordered them to return to what they were doing which they did sullenly.

"Thanks for that" Shiori said

"No problem Shiori, gotta say nice speech it certainly made me want to fight under you for once" she joked

"Haha, you're so funny" Shiori replied sitting back down noting proudly that he had succeeded in his first task now all he needed to do was return to spying on the Council

"Yo commander we've got a messenger for you!" a soldier said escorting a Council messenger

"Thanks you can go now" Shiori said dismissing the soldier "Now who sent you and what do they want from me?" Shiori asked the messenger

"Sir, it's your sister Councilor Dreyar. She said she wanted to speak to you as soon as possible about something highly classified so you'll need to go to see her if you want to know what it is" the messenger reported

"Of course, how could I refuse my dear sister?" Shiori said to the relieved messenger who was allowed to leave "Why did he look so happy to leave?" he asked Caylee

"Probably because it's no secret how much you hate your sister… and how you also take your wrath on her unfortunate messengers" Caylee suggested

"Well he didn't need to show his relief" Shiori said

"So are you going to talk to your sister now?" she asked

"I probably should" he said getting up and leaving the room, as he made his way to his sister's office he couldn't help but feel delighted for the first time in sometime "First I motivate my soldiers and now I get to see what this 'highly classified' material is… this day just keeps getting better and better"


	18. The Two Gods

Shiori walked down the long corridor to where his sister's office was located, it was at the end of the hall which always made him hope fire would spontaneously start and kill his sister right there.

"Wow I understand the whole he's jealous thing, but why does he want his sister dead that badly?" Lahar asked disturbed

"Nobody knows except those two and they never told anyone about their past" Guran answered

"Rumor has it that Chelsea once broke his favorite bounty hunter action figure and he never forgave her" Chaos said ominously

"He'd kill her over that?" Lahar asked unconvinced

"Point is Shiori is one fucked up bastard who makes Kyro look sane, back to the story" Chaos said happily

The thought of spontaneous fire certainly did make Shiori happy even if he knew that the chances of that happening were next to zero. He got to the door, knocked twice, and waited for a response from inside but heard none. He knocked again and tapped his foot on the ground waiting impatiently for his sister to open up, eventually get got frustrated of waiting and decided to barge in. He forced the door open with a single kick, walked in, and noticed his sister sound asleep in her chair. She didn't look like much of a Councilor to be honest: her long blonde hair was in a mess, she never wore the Councilor's usual attire instead sticking with something more casual and even that had food and drink stains all over it, she could be pretty if she tried but she never did.

"Is this what you guys do all day?" Shiori asked aloud

"Not really I'm just sleeping because I was waiting for you to show up" Chelsea answered with her eyes still closed

"Umm are you awake?" Shiori asked

"No no I just trained myself to dream about what I'd hear if I was awake so it lets me sleep and conduct all my business" she explained

"That doesn't make any sense… or sound possible" Shiori said now sitting down on the chair

"It is possible but if you're freaked out I could open my eyes if you want" she offered

"I'd prefer that" he answered

"Whatever you say big brother" she sighed opening her eyes "I see you're as well dressed as ever" she said

"And you're as… unkempt as ever" he said

"True that, now I'm sure you're wondering what the highly classified stuff I want to talk to you about is" she said

"I'll admit to a slight curiosity" he answered

"Well while you were away the Council decided to take a well… different direction in how we do things to keep order" she started

"By away do you mean sent all over the world to take out a few dark guilds?" he growled

"I'm sorry but it had to be done, people were getting mad at us for sending token squads or the occasional enforcement squad and you guys were our way of saying we care. Besides one of our enforcement squads got absolutely destroyed when we sent them to take out a dark guild a couple of weeks ago so don't underestimate these dark guilds" she explained

"Whatever, just tell me what this classified stuff is"

"Basically we're going to be unlocking some old ass powers that have been sealed away for a long ass time so we can use them to basically install a new world order… or something like that" she said

"I see" Shiori said wondering how she could be so casual about a matter like this "So why are you telling me all this?" he asked

"Because you're the Right Hand of the Council or well our propaganda says that, point is it'd be real super to have you on board. Oh and I guess I'm asking you as your sister to help us achieve our goals" she answered

"Well this certainly is a lot to digest" Shiori lied "But I guess that the greater good of the world is at stake here so I'll accept" he said

"Oh thanks god" Chelsea said relaxing deep into her chair "I thought it was going to be hell trying to get you to join in"

"But I'm not doing it because of you" he continued

"What happened to you Shio-san? We used to get along so well… is this because I broke your bounty hunter action figure set?" she asked trying to look as cute as possible

"Wait did she actually say that?" Lahar asked

"Haha, Shio-san that's good" Guran laughed ignoring Lahar

"Yes it is hilarious and yes Lahar she really did wonder if the action figures crushed their relationship" Chaos said "Anyways"

"Don't call me that it's stupid!" Shiori demanded

"But you used to think it was cute when I called you that when we were kids" she protested

"It doesn't matter we're not kids anymore so stop it!" Shiori said getting up "I'll work with you but it doesn't mean I have to like you" he told her before leaving her alone

"Shio-san… Why do you hate me so much?" she asked while tears started welling up in her eyes before she got startled by her communications lacrima ringing and she was forced to wipe her eyes before answering the call "Who is it?"

"It's Jillhearts silly I told you I'd call after the meeting with your brother was over… so did he fall in line?" the voice answered

"Hmm? Yeah he agreed to join us" Chelsea answered

"That's great! I figured he was going to be pissed that we kept sending his troops around the world but as long as we've got his support it'll mean the commoners will support us, they love that guy." Jillhearts said with satisfaction "Chelsea are you crying?" she asked noticing tears running down Chelsea's face

"I'm fine, nobody cries after their brother tells them they hate you!" she said before breaking down into more tears

"Chelsea I don't want to be mean but hadn't you figured it out that he didn't like you that much?"

"That doesn't mean it won't hurt if he says that to your face! I mean how would you feel if Kaizus said he hates you?"

"Well I'd certainly wonder why he decided to have a kid with me before telling me that, and then I'd probably say okay and get a divorce"

"You're only saying that because he hasn't said that to you!"

"Chelsea you're being irrational again, besides I already found out one of my better friends betrayed the Council and is at large with our plans"

"Oh Chaos how's he been?" Chelsea said suddenly cheering up

"Why are you so happy when you hear his name?

"Because he's the only person who doesn't care how I act!" she said crying once more

"Whatever, ah sorry to cut the call short Chelsea but apparently I'm needed for something" Jillhearts said hanging up and addressed the Council guard in front of her "Have a message for me?"

The guard had been busy watching the Councilor conduct her business: she was a striking woman, with white hair that hung down to her shoulders, a beautiful face with deep blue eyes that anyone could get lost in, and a great figure. It took him a moment to register that she was addressing him "Yes Ma'am there is a group outside who wishes to start a guild with the Council's approval!" he reported hastily

"So how does this involve me?" she asked

"Well thanks to the new law passed recently at least two Councilors are required to give their consent for the guild to be official"

"Again why do you need me?"

"Because your husband I-I mean Chairman Straus appears to be sleeping right now, Councilor Dreyar really didn't sound like she was fit to give approval, Councilor Heartfillia is still recovering from his uh visit to his Master's house, nobody knows where Councilors Lockser or Hana are, only Councilor Doma is willing to give his approval and since you were the only other Councilor we could find we decided to ask you" he said running out of breath

"What about Jacky or Daichi?" she asked desperately

"Well Jacky is kind of well… wasted right now and Daichi is still on his journey" he answered

"That Jackie I'll kick his ass later for screwing around" she seethed "Fine I'll go and give them my approval and be done with it" she said getting up and leaving her office and the guard alone

She hurried down the stairs rather than taking the elevator which she always felt was too slow anyway, she rushed outside where Councilor Doma was waiting with the group that wanted to start the guild.

"Ahem, Chaos can we skip my character description?" Guran interrupted

"Come now Chairman I'm sure Lahar would love to see how you looked like as a teenager" Chaos said

"Ugh, just make it quick!" he ordered

Guran was the most recent member of the Magic Council having replaced a retiring member around five months ago, he had brunette hair that he kept short and in a spiky hairdo, and looked like a healthy teenager.

"That's it?" Lahar asked let down

"I mean he's a teenager there's not much to focus on besides his hair and if he's healthy for his age" Chaos answered

The kid was also pretty mature and level-headed for his age; he was the last Councilor to sign off on the plans just because he spent so much time analyzing the details of it and the possible outcomes. Jillhearts also knew the kid still had a ways to go in his magical power but his potential was sky high as of now. What concerned her though was the group waiting for her: she recognized Catherine immediately having seen her and Hana spend time hanging out, the other girl she didn't know but she felt like she should, the most worrisome though was Kazuo who everyone recognized on sight.

"Damn is he the one who wants to start this guild, didn't he learn his lesson last time he had one?" Jillhearts cursed out "That didn't end well for anybody it took us ages to disassociate ourselves with that mess"

"Well if it isn't the lovely Councilor Straus how do you do young one!" Kazuo said quite loudly

"Fine Kazuo you think you could lower your voice just a bit?" she asked

"But this is my normal voice"

"It doesn't matter, so I'm guessing you're the one who wants to start the guild?"

"Why yes and I was recently informed that two Councilors are required to give approval, young Guran here has already agreed to it so if we can just hurry this up"

"Wait Chairman Doma you gave your approval for Tartaros to be formed?" Lahar asked

"Unfortunately yes, it's a decision I've regretted every day of my life" Guran answered softly

"Hold on a second old timer" Jillhearts said "Hmm, what to do? If I give him his guild I run the risk of him running all haywire again and just repeating what happened with his Sabers. But if I don't then there's the risk that he goes out and claims we didn't give him a guild because we had something to do with his last guild's destruction" she wondered unsure

"Wow she's really deep in thought about this" Mavis pointed out

"Yeah Councilor Straus is a deep thinker about this kind of stuff" Councilor Doma answered

"I don't think we've been introduced yet, I'm Mavis" she said extending her hand out

"I'm Guran as Kazuo pointed out earlier, nice to meet you" he said shaking her hand

"Hmm I know a lot of big news was made when you got selected for the Council but you don't really look that well…" Catherine started

"Impressive?" Guran asked

"Yeah that" Catherine said

"It's alright I honestly don't think it's important that I'm young as long as I'm a good administrator does my age matter?" he asked

"I guess not" Catherine answered

"Exactly… Jillhearts you're going to have to make a decision soon" he said trying to get her to hurry up

"This is very important kid" Jillhearts answered back "God damn it I wish this wasn't so hard, of all the legal guilds we've 'disbanded' and the Masters we've taught lessons to over the years why does he want to come back? I just wish someone would come and do this instead of me, I know I'm probably over thinking this but I feel like it's important" she thought

"Wow she's taking a long time to figure this out, it's actually making me a bit nervous right now. Does she know that we're somehow associated with Chaos, I mean she did look at Mavis funny?" Kazuo wondered, but then he suddenly saw a figure that immediately brightened him up considerably "Daichi you old dog you finally came out of hiding!" he yelled out to the figure startling everyone

"Ha, if I was hiding then what the hell were you doing old friend!" Daichi yelled out just as loudly

"Oh great now he shows up" Jillhearts muttered

Daichi was a large muscular man, he wore a black robe that exposed his chest revealing several scars, and his most defining feature was his complete baldness which he was quite proud of apparently. The two large men ran towards each other laughing like little kids but when they met they punched each other in the face sending both men flying in opposite directions crashing into the Council building.

"Not again" Jillhearts moaned

"Is this what they always do when they see each other?" Catherine asked shocked

"I'm afraid so"

"Haha Kazuo your right hook is as weak as ever!" Daichi laughed

"You call that a haymaker, you must be getting old!" Kazuo laughed as they both got up and walked to each other clasping hands

"How have you been old friend, I'd heard you went missing for some time" Daichi asked concerned

"Ah don't worry old friend I'm over it now, but what have you been doing all this time?" Kazuo asked

"The usual journeying, seeing if there's any other worthy opponents besides you… there's not"

"Well that's what happens when you enter the top tier of mages!" Kazuo remarked and both started laughing

"Top tier?" Guran asked curiously

"That tier is comprised of those two. The Great Thunder God Kazuo and the Great Earth God Daichi Neekis, the rest of us are like children to them" Jillhearts answered

"Wow… if she's saying that those two really are the best" Catherine muttered

"What do you mean?" Mavis asked Catherine

"Jillhearts is without a doubt the second strongest member of the Magic Council and the only reason she isn't a Saint is because she keeps refusing the title. But if she's saying that she's weak compared to those two imagine where we stand compared to them" Catherine explained to Mavis who was clearly awed

"So what brings you to the Council Building Kazuo" Daichi asked after they had finished pleasantries

"Well I thought about starting a new guild so me and these two young ladies came here to start said guild" Kazuo answered

"Well that's good to hear, I know there are a lot of young mages who could stand to learn a few things from people like us" Daichi said nodding his head in approval

"That's what I was thinking and I already got young Guran here to give us his approval, I asked Councilor Straus but she seems to be having a dilemma at the moment" Kazuo said

"A dilemma huh?" Daichi said walking to Jillhearts "What's the trouble Councilor?"

"Well umm I think you know what my thought process is right now" she said

"Not at all I think Kazuo getting a guild again would be a great idea, if Jillhearts won't give her approval then I will!" he announced to Jillheart's dismay

"Wait! Don't you think that last time served as a reminder of what happened!" she said trying to draw Daichi's attention to the obvious

"Oh you mean that dark guilds will attack him again? I don't think they'll get as lucky next time, you really need to stop stressing over these things" he advised

"Whatever, it's your choice even if I disapprove it doesn't matter if you two will sign their forms" she sighed as she watched Daichi add his signature under Guran's approving the formation of Tartaros

"Tartaros huh? Interesting name you thought of" Daichi remarked giving the copy of the forms to Kazuo and keeping the original for himself.

"Haha well we couldn't think of any other names and Mythology seemed our only recourse" he answered

"Well who am I to question Guild names, you're all set old man. If you ever come back make sure to call me and we can drink just like old times!" Daichi said

"You know it!" Kazuo said leaving with Catherine and Mavis

"It was fortunate that he came, I thought Jillhearts was going to say no" Catherine said in relief

"It's weird that my brother didn't know about the law though" Mavis said "Then again administration was always his weak point, so how long have you known Mr. Neekis Kazuo?

"We've been best friends for over twenty years now back when we were young mages making our name in the world. Eventually we began getting called gods and he got named Councilor while I started my own guild, but we've always found some time to drink with each other to catch up" he said happily "Still though it is going to be disappointing when I have to fight him later"

"Because you're the only one of us who could stand a chance against him" Mavis said finishing his thought process

Meanwhile Jillhearts was catching up with the Earth God briefing him about the recent developments of the plans including Shiori's decision to join them.

"Looks like the dominoes are falling in place then" he remarked

"Yep. Still why'd you give him approval?" Jillhearts asked

"Still mad about that?"

"Not mad, just curious"

"He looks like he's learned his lesson it's not like he'll cause commotion with this one"

"What if he didn't learn his lesson, then what?"

"Then I'll just have to put them down, like I did with his last guild"


	19. The search for a base and a rising guild

Meanwhile in Magnolia Town Chaos' group was searching for an adequate building to call headquarters for Tartaros. It should have been a breeze, but apparently other guilds had the same idea to come to Magnolia Town to make a name for themselves as well and then there was the whole disagreement with what building to use. The group couldn't seem to come to any sort of agreement with even another person, let alone get a consensus about what building to use. Chaos had grown tired of the arguing and quietly slipped away from the rest of the group. However it seemed that nobody had realized Chaos was gone as they were far too busy arguing with each other again over a prospective building.

"This thing is way too big for the few of us, what the hell would we do with all the extra space?" Drexel asked

"Well the guild is going to grow in size later it only makes sense to save time now and get this building, besides you know how much money it is to get an addition to a building, it's outrageous!" Jax said having had an unpleasant experience with the matter

"I actually agree with the old dude on this one, we'll be saving ourselves hassle later if just get this building now" Kyro remarked

"Who the hell are you calling old!" Jax growled

"I'm agreeing with you!"

"You don't have to call me the 'old dude' though"

"Shut up both of you, Julia what do you think" Drexel asked Julia who was barely paying attention

"I honestly don't care, I mean I grew up in a freaking Dragon Nest I'm fine with anything!" Julia answered

"Exactly so it's two to one on this matter Drexel you've been outvoted" Kyro remarked smugly

"Oh hell no where's Chaos he's the one who's in charge... where'd he go?" Drexel asked finally realizing Chaos had left the group

"He snuck off to find his own place and then buy it while we're all arguing!" Jax exclaimed angrily

"That bastard, after him now!" Kyro said rushing off

"Why did I have to come with these idiots?" Julia asked painfully as she sat down on a bench watching the other three run off in search of Chaos

Chaos was glad to be rid of those three, Julia was bearable at the moment but he knew she was a ticking time bomb of stupidity so it was only a matter of time anyway before she would annoy him too. He knew that his peace would be momentary as it would be a matter of time before they figured out he was gone and would search for him.

"They probably think I went to find a place on my own… not a bad idea actually. I mean all I'd need is Kazuo's approval and that would be that" he mused

He felt his stomach rumble and realized he hadn't eaten since they had left from Balsam so he focused on finding a place to eat, but none of the places nearby looked any appetizing. He finally settled on a seafood place that looked somewhat reputable, ordered whatever the catch of the day was, and ate on his own while reading a book he had brought with him to pass the time. As he read he felt a somewhat familiar presence nearby and immediately put his feet on the chair opposite to him when the figure tried sitting on it.

"Mind if I sit here assassin?" the girl asked

"No. Wait yes I do mind if you sit here in fact I want to be left alone" he said still reading

"Ah come on you're only using the chair as a foot rest let me sit here!" she said trying to wrench the chair away from his feet

"Like I said find somewhere else to sit I want to be alone!" he said louder still holding onto the chair

"But there's nobody else here I know and it's going to be real awkward if I sit on my own!"

"Sounds like someone needs to improve their self-confidence, why don't you start by sitting on your own and face the problem directly"

"Ah-ha" she said triumphantly after she wrenched the chair from his feet and sat down across from him

"Doesn't matter" he said now using the girl as a foot rest

"The hell are you two doing?" Julia asked having watched the scene while searching for Chaos

"Oh how long have you been there?" he asked nonchalantly

"Enough to know you two are weird" she answered

"Wait I know I've seen you somewhere before" the girl asked staring intently at Julia

"Hmm, I feel like we've met in a fight… but I don't remember fighting you this is going to bother me."Julia thought aloud "Ah I know you're that girl who interrupted my fight that one time! You're Hana right?" Julia exclaimed

"Yep! You were the ones who would have died if I didn't intervene" Hana said happily

"That's right…" Julia said slightly embarrassed that she was saved by the enemy

"Oh the irony" Chaos thought "But why those two decided to fight to the death I'll never know"

"So how do you know Chaos" Julia asked

"Oh we used to chill after he's done with missions every once in a while" Hana replied

"Every once in a while? I talked with you after a mission once … for five minutes" he said

"Non-sense you and I are great friends!"

"Like hell we are, you're a person I know at best and a pest at worst"

"That hurts!"

"Maybe you shouldn't be telling the nice pink haired lady lies then Hana"

"You're just a big meanie!" she exclaimed

"So what are you doing making conversation with a wanted criminal anyway?" Julia asked finally

"Wanted? Oh I guess you two haven't heard what Kai- I mean the Chairman has ordered, he doesn't really want to put you in jail more so have someone bring you to him so he can talk to you" she explained

"What? He can just ignore every law that says I should be killed on sight?" Chaos asked

"Yeah he pretty much does what he wants right now, and seeing as you two are best friends I can see why he did what he did. He also released an order that said if you come willingly to talk with him he'll pardon you of your offense"

"Lucky you Chaos" Julia remarked sarcastically

"Well I figured my friendship with him would finally start paying off eventually. Still do I really have to talk with him again, I mean we just chatted when we met in Crocus" Chaos muttered

"Look I don't pretend to understand why Kaizus seems so intent on converting you, but it's not my place to question his actions" Hana explained "I'm also not going to be the one to try and drag you in since I know my magic doesn't affect an assassin like you that much, just go for Kaizus' sake" she continued

"He'll consider it, right now we've got more important things to do" Julia answered

"Whatever just go talk with him when you get the time, I however don't get to reject the Council's decision to make me come back from my traveling so I must get going" Hana said getting up and leaving

"Hana, when you see our Chairman again… just tell him to leave me alone" he told her as she walked away

"Well that was unexpected" Julia said after a few silent moments

"Indeed it was still nice that Kaizus decided to let me walk around free again… which is what I've been doing this entire time" he said

"So are you going to actually see him?"

"Maybe, Kaizus unlike me has a sense of honor so he's not going to use it to trap me I would think, like Hana said he's still trying to convert me to his cause so he wouldn't try to force me to join him I would hope."

"You're not going to let your friendship with him affect anything right?"

"Don't worry about it Julia I've already assumed that whatever friendship we had is over and that I'm going to be the one who ends up killing him." He remarked "So no Kaizus can beg me to show up until he's lost his voice, I'm not going back to the Council Building until I have an army behind me"

"That actually sounded kind of cool"

"Really?"

"No… oh look there's the rest of our squad" she said dryly as she noticed the other three members who looked like they had ran over all of Magnolia Town looking for Chaos, they seemed surprised when they saw Chaos and Julia simply sitting and looking at them strangely

"Wait, you've been here the entire time?" Drexel asked

"Yes I've been reading and eating, hearing you guys argue over a building made me want to shoot myself so I decided to slip away before I actually did kill myself" he explained

"Ah don't we look silly now" Kyro muttered "Hmm was there someone sitting with you or was that chair just there the entire time?" he asked

"Oh I had a little discussion with Hana while you guys were running around" Chaos answered

"She didn't try and take you in?" Jax asked

"She didn't want to try it, but she did tell me that Kaizus wants whoever finds me to be taken to him rather than being killed on sight which is what treason demands. He's still trying to convert me for whatever reason" Chaos answered

"Maybe because unlike you he has a sense of honor?" Jax mused

"Hey old man how about you go ask the ghosts of the dead how much honor meant to them as they died then come back to me on that? Anyway Kaizus is still unwilling to admit we're not going to be best friends after this is all over, which works in our benefit as I can move around a bit more freely… still doesn't solve the whole we don't have a building yet though" Chaos said a bit testily

"Yeah well we've had a tough time agreeing on the building as of now" Drexel said

"I still don't know why, I mean it's just a building you realize that since you're all part of the guild you're going to spend most of your time doing missions right?" Chaos asked

"It's the principle of the matter, besides I finally get a chance to decide what the building I'm going to stay in looks like. The Dark Wings never let me choose the architectural stuff" Kyro said excitedly

"You're all stupid and I'm taking away your rights to vote on the grounds of saving time, besides in the end it's Kazuo who gets to decide what the building will be… he is the Master after all" Chaos declared

"That's not fair!" they all shouted

"Why do you care Julia?" Chaos asked

"I don't care about the building I don't like the authoritarian actions you're taking" she explained

"First of all you wouldn't know an authoritarian rule even if you were living under one all your life, second of all Kazuo is the one who's going to be making the decision not me so maybe you should be pandering to him instead of complaining to me" Chaos said

"Fine we'll ask him after we pick a building but on the grounds that we need a majority decision before we present it to him, can we all agree on that?" Drexel asked

"Why not?" Chaos said getting up

After this agreement they all resumed their search for a building to call headquarters, but it quickly degraded into the exact same situation as before. With Drexel, Kyro, and Jax arguing with each other about the building, Julia wishing she was somewhere else, and Chaos contemplating suicide if only to get some peace. However against all odds they all managed to agree on a building for now located a good distance up the central path from Magnolia Town; incidentally it was also away from other guilds in the area which added to its allure. After making sure they were all in agreement the decided to call Kazuo and get his approval.

"You finally called! So how goes the search for a building, do we have one yet?" he asked loudly

"Yeah we've managed to come to some conclusion… granted these idiots made me want to kill myself" Chaos muttered

"Don't do it big brother! Suicide is never the answer besides think about what'll happen to me" Mavis exclaimed

"Shut up Mavis I was joking, but yeah here's a look at the building" he said showing Kazuo the prospective building

"Hmm it looks nice but sort of empty" Kazuo remarked

"Well yeah that's because we're going to have buy all the furniture and stuff needed for it" Chaos said wondering if Kazuo indeed remembered how to run a guild

"Ah, that's true oh and the most important part… is there a bar in there?" Kazuo asked remembering the importance of a bar

"I mean we could always make our own if you want" Drexel answered

"Then it's settled we're going to use this as our new headquarters" Kazuo announced

"Wait that's all you wanted?" Mavis and Catherine asked in shock

"He's got simple tastes but it does solve this problem, well congrats everyone Tartaros is now a real guild" Chaos said, yet nobody seemed to be any happier "Come on now don't celebrate at once, you might break the place" he muttered

"Hmm let's see after that we had to get tables, chairs, oh and a shit ton of alcohol but honestly we really didn't do much those first few days" Chaos told his two listeners

"I still find it interesting how you seemed much more willing to kill Kaizus even though he seemed extremely reluctant" Lahar said

"It was simply business in my mind; I was doing what I thought was right and he did what he thought was right the only way to resolve it was to kill each other, made perfect sense to me" Chaos explained

"So after Tartaros was officially formed what else did you guys do?" Guran asked

"Well let's see there was the moving in, the getting jobs that we all did really quickly to make names for ourselves and recruit mages, oh and there was this one funny incident I'll tell you about" Chaos said with a smile

Tartaros was now the talk Magnolia Town, their mages were said to be some of the best doing highly difficult jobs in record time, and many mages flocked to join this powerful guild. Soon Tartaros became undoubtedly one of the major guilds in all of Magnolia Town, but there was resistance to the guild that had risen so far in barely a month by the older guilds. There were several attempts to try and intimidate Tartaros, but more often than not it only scared the other guilds into submission.

"Oy! We've got another umm 'terror squad' outside that's threatening to kick our asses if we don't start paying tribute to them or something stupid like that" Catherine called out to loud laughter from the rest of the guild

"You think they'd have learned from the other guilds not to mess with us" one mage laughed

"They're all too stupid, I mean the only thing they're doing is pissing off our S-Class mages who have to deal with them" another said

"Alright one of us has to do this; it can't be Kazuo because otherwise it looks like we're so weak our Master has to protect us. I can't do it because I'd kill them and that's probably going to get us in trouble with the Council again" Chaos started

"Well it can't be me I'd probably kill them in mid blood lust" Kyro remarked

"What about you Jax?"

"Hell no my sword isn't set to stun it'll just slice them apart"

"My reason is the same as Chaos; I also don't know how ice spikes wouldn't kill some people"

"I'll do it!"

"No Julia your strategy is obliterate the upper portion of their bodies… they're not going to be alive at the end of it" Catherine said

"Well then what about you?" Julia asked in a huff

"I use blood magic! That stuff is meant to kill people!" she exclaimed

"Hmm and Shiori is still spying on the Council which leaves…" Chaos started before everyone stared at Mavis evilly

"Wha-? Why me?!" she shouted as she realized why they were looking at her

"Because we know you're way to afraid of killing someone to actually hurt them too much and besides if you beat them then people will be scared shitless of us if our teenager can defeat a bunch of other mages" Drexel explained

"But I-I was going to… fine I'll go deal with them!" she muttered angrily heading outside

"Oy Tartaros how about you get your fat asses out here before we have to come in there and mess up the place!" one mage shouted "Wait who the fuck is that?"

"It's a freaking kid you guys think you're that good huh?" another one shouted

"Listen I was told to tell you guys that you're being kind of loud so if you guys could all go back to your guild it would be real nice" Mavis explained trying to avoid conflict

"This stupid brat thinks she can tell us what to do? If Tartaros thinks we won't mess a kid up they're mistaken" one mage yelled charging at Mavis

Mavis sighed before quickly sidestepping his first blow before sending him flying with a _light punch_ that she barely used any magic on. She looked blankly at the other mages who were busy watching where their comrade would fall before turning around clearly shaken about what just happened. They quickly huddled up and thought up a plan before charging at Mavis at once but each one of them met the same fate as the first.

"Hmm I think I sent them all flying to the same place hopefully they can all find each other… I hope they're alright though" She thought before walking back in and reporting what happened which made the other members of the guild erupt in laughter and applause

"Nice job kid that'll show them to fuck with us!"

"Oh come on what the hell did we do?"

"Doesn't matter we're all part of the guild so when one of us is successful we're all successful!"

"So when one of us fails we all fail?"

"Non-sense it just means that the failure sucks!

At the end of the day the mages left for their houses but Chaos stayed behind in order to talk with Shiori who was still spying on the Council. Shiori had done a great job managing to maintain the guise of loyalty while also feeding vital information to the Tartaros about the actions of the Council. The Council had been delayed in starting the ritual they were still missing vital artifacts that were key to calling forth the sealed power.

"Hmm so they're only halfway done with their scavenger hunt?" Chaos asked

"Yep the stuff they're looking for is based on old myths so half the information they're working with is unreliable at best so it takes them time to find these artifacts" Shiori explained

"But still what's the importance of these artifacts?"

"Basically whoever holds a tool that was used by the Ancients can absorb the power allowing the mage to have untold powers, it also has the benefit of speeding up the ritual"

"Why do they need so many though I thought only Kaizus was supposed to gain the power?"

"That's what they won't tell me I would think that there might be some disagreement within the Council about sharing the power, perhaps some distrust between the Councilors."

"There's some extra drama it's too bad I won't be able to see it though, do tell me if a catfight ends up happening… or if Kaizus and Kieran end up in a catfight of their own"

"Umm I'll do that I think"

"Alright talk to you later"

"Wait one more thing, I got an estimate from my sister on when they'll be conducting the ritual… it'll be at the end of the year"

"So we've got another five months huh?"

"Yep so we need to step up the recruiting while we can"

"Don't worry about it just focus on the spying Shio-san" Chaos said

"Argh! Don't call me that!" Shiori yelled

"What I can't hear you" Chaos said hanging up

"Well only five more months before the fate of the world is decided, should be one hell of a time"


	20. Mavis and Guran Doma

"Time skip!" Chaos announced suddenly to his two listeners

"If you must" Guran muttered

The months had passed by and Tartaros had now absorbed the remaining guilds of Magnolia Town and had over three hundred mages that called themselves members of the guild. The process was hampered several times by the Council who were growing worried over these recent actions, but since no war was ever declared the Council couldn't do much except give Kazuo a warning every now and then. Chaos sat alone watching the other members go about their daily business, the guild had grown a lot louder and it was rare he could find time to think alone. Shiori had kept them updated about the Council's actions and it seemed the Council was ready to start the ritual in a few weeks meaning Tartaros would have to act soon as well. The difficult part would be trying to get the rest of the guild to agree to the plan; people would obviously be afraid of attacking the Council even if they knew about the plans.

"Hmm if only the Council would do something to piss the others off so bad they'd blindly attack the Council regardless of their lives" he thought

His thought process was distracted by the return of Mavis who strangely looked a lot happier than she normally did when coming back from a job. He had been letting her go alone on missions now as he figured she didn't need a babysitter anymore, she could more than handle herself when it came to fighting, but he still wondered why she did look so happy.

"Oy kid, why the hell do you look like you just found out where I hid the cookie dough?" he asked

"Hmm, oh well I did find where you hid the cookie dough and second is that I met someone during my mission!" she replied happily

"You met someone? Like in the they're an old friend you haven't seen in a while sense, or the other sense which I pray to god you don't mean" Chaos asked

"Hmm, well I wouldn't say he and I were friends but we did meet a while back so I guess the first one" she answered

"Who is it?" he asked

"It's probably that kid Councilor Doma" Kazuo announced loudly from across the room

"Ah, how'd you know Kaz- I mean Master?" she asked

"Well he's the last person you've met in a while so I figured it was him" he responded

"Oh is that right? What happened then?" Chaos asked now very curious

"Well we happened to be going after the same group of monsters that had been terrorizing a couple of towns so we decided to work together. After that he said he wanted to thank me and that since the blossom viewing festival is about to happen soon he said he'd like to hang out with me and watch the sakuras trees together" she explained to a confused Chaos

"So a date?" Kazuo announced again this time causing a large number of mages to look at a surprised Mavis

"I guess so" she said "Ah, big brother are you okay?" she asked Chaos who had frozen upon hearing Mavis's response

"Hold on a second" Lahar said trying to hold back his laughter "Chairman did you actually ask her out?"

"Well those weren't my intentions at the time, but I can see how it could be interpreted in that way" Guran answered diplomatically

"No, he asked my sister out on a date ironically a couple of weeks before they'd try and kill each other… funny how that works" Chaos said

"Sorry Chairman, but haha it's just too funny!" Lahar said giving into his laughter which angered the Chairman

"It wasn't a date! It was just me thanking her for helping me take out those monsters" he tried angrily

"No thanking her would be giving her a gift, you offered to spend time with her watching pretty trees change colors… that's a date no matter how you look at it" Chaos said with a smile "If it makes you feel better I was just as mad as you are now back then" he consoled

"Okay, I got that out of my system you can go on with the story" Lahar said

"Can we just skip this part?" Guran asked

"Not at all" Chaos said going back to the story

Despite her best efforts she couldn't get him to move at all or to even change his expression which was a mixture of surprise, horror, and pure rage. Eventually she gave up trying and simply sat next to him enduring the other mages in the guilds congratulating her on her first date with a Councilor.

"This is getting annoying, it's not that much of date anyway" she said to Kazuo

"So it is a date!" Chaos suddenly yelled out scaring both Kazuo and Mavis

"Hmm looks you're going through what I went through when I found out someone asked my beloved daughter out" Kazuo responded knowingly

"This is different those were two people of the same guild going out, she's going out with someone who in a few weeks is going to try and take over the freaking world! There's no comparison for what I'm going through right now!" he responded angrily

"It's just a harmless little thing between teenagers just calm down and let it happen" Kazuo said

"Hell no, I forbid it!" Chaos said

"You can't forbid it you're not my… oh wait you are my legal guardian" Mavis started before realizing her brother could forbid her actions

"Don't be like that Chaos I mean how can you be fine with letting her do missions on her own but not letting her go out on a date?" Kazuo asked supporting Mavis

"Because who the hell will attack a teenager who can shoot light beams out of her freaking hands? Nobody that's who, besides she's thirteen she's way too young for this type of stuff. Besides what happens if she falls for him? Then how can she fight against him if it ever comes to it?" Chaos responded

"Why would I fall in love with him after one date?" she demanded

"Because you're thirteen and that's what you kids do you think you're in love and then you do stupid things because of it!" Chaos yelled

"What the hell is going on, how's a girl supposed to sleep with all this yelling going on?" Drexel muttered getting up from behind the bar with her pillow

"Ah there you are Drexel, anyway Mavis over here was asked out on a date by that young Councilor" Kazuo explained

"So?"

"He's forbidding it"

"Ah, well that's his right to do so but you must realize Chaos by forbidding their relationship you're only driving her into his arms"

"Wait why would I be driven into his arms it's not like we've been going out for a while" Mavis asked

"Quiet Mavis, grownups are talking." Chaos told her "I'm doing what's best for her besides you do know that we're going to be fighting the Council soon so I really don't understand the point of them going out"

"Think of it this way then if the Councilor falls for Mavis or has any hint of affection for her then when we attack he'll be too shocked and hurt to fight properly and be easier to defeat" Drexel explained

"Hmm that actually is a good idea" Chaos mused

"Wait what's going on?" Mavis asked tired of being ignored

"You're going out with the Councilor come Blossom viewing festival here's a communications lacrima go tell him…now!" Chaos ordered giving her a lacrima

"What? Then why were you so resistant earlier" she asked very confused right now

"It's just as Drexel explained it if he does indeed show some affection for you we can use it to bring him down a lot easier or even better I can kill him on the spot!" Chaos explained

"So you're basically using me right now?" she asked

"Yeah pretty much" he answered bluntly "Now go call him, you can use Kazuo's office that he never uses to enjoy privacy" he said pushing her into the office and closing the door before putting his ear on the door and calling for silence from the rest of the mages who were all wondering what was happening

"I have no idea what's going through his head, first he doesn't want me to go now he does want me to go out… I'm starting to wonder if he really is crazy" Mavis thought "Oh well here goes" she said activating the lacrima and waited for Guran to answer

"Can we please skip this part" Guran begged Chaos

"And miss one of the more awkward conversations in history?" Chaos asked mockingly before getting back to the story

"Umm hi Guran it's me" Mavis started not sure what else to say

"Oh hi Mavis, so umm how have you been?" Guran asked

"I've been alright just doing jobs now and then for the guild" she answered

"Oh yeah, that's cool so umm have you uh considered my offer" he asked after a few moment of silence

"Yeah, and I'd like… hold on a second would you" she began then putting the lacrima down before walking to the door and blasting it open with her light magic "Stop eavesdropping on my conversation I heard laughing!" she yelled out

"What are you talking about kid?" Chaos asked while playing poker with Drexel, Julia, and Kyro

"Yes indeed Mavis what are you accusing us of?" Drexel said over her cards

"Wait, you guys were laughing and I thought I heard someone say that this conversation was really adorable" she said unsure of herself

"Nobody said that kid, all we did was discuss how Julia is an awful poker player" Kyro remarked "I'm going all in" he said watching both Chaos and Drexel immediately fold

"I'm not bad and I'll see your bet!" Julia said annoyed and throwing in her money "Ha, two pairs!"

"Read it and weep" Kyro said tossing his full house down and taking all the money from a shocked Julia

"Wait! That's my rent and food money right there!" she exclaimed

"Looks like someone needs to go on a job now" Chaos suggested

"I will… after one more game" she said

"Well I guess that none of you were spying on me so I'll uh be going back then" Mavis said going toward the door and closing it

"Ah, that was close" Drexel said dealing the next hand out

"Sorry guys I couldn't help myself" Chaos said picking up his cards

"Can't blame you Chaos, I was ready to burst out laughing after there was that awkward silence" Kyro said

"Yeah those kids are so funny" Julia said looking at her hand "Finally! A good hand!" she announced

"I'm out" the other three said folding

"Damn it!"

"Alright I think they're back to talking again" Chaos said going back to the door

"Sorry Guran I thought my brother and the rest of the guild was eavesdropping" Mavis apologized

"Oh don't worry if it makes you feel better the rest of the Councilors are spying on me" he said

"Haha well at least they're obvious about it"

"Easy for you to say… so about the blossom viewing?"

"Yeah, uh well yes I want to go with you" she said

"Oh that's a relief I thought you would say no" Guran said before getting annoyed by the laughter behind him

"Are the Councilors laughing at you?" Mavis asked

"Yes… but I don't really care I just wanted to see the blossoms with you" he said

"Oh come on Chairman you knew you had to be asking her out!" Lahar inerupted laughing

"Nah dude you heard him he just wanted to see pretty flowers with Mavis, that's clearly not a date" Chaos said smiling at the flustered Chairman before returning to the story

"Oh well I uh wanted that too" Mavis said blushing before hearing a round of laughter from outside

"Are your friends spying on you now?" Guran asked

"Y-Yes they are and I'm going to kick their asses for it later. So where do you want to meet for the festival?" she asked

"Wherever you want to meet"

"How about in front of the guild?" she asked

"Hell no!" Chaos called out

"Okay how about in front of the trees then?" she asked

"Yeah that'll work!" Chaos called out again

"Is that your brother?" Guran asked

"Yes that's him" she said embarrassed

"Well I think that's everything so I'll see you the- Kaizus what are you doing?!" Guran said before being knocked out of the way by Kaizus

"Oy Chaos I know you're listening I just want to talk for a few seconds!" Kaizus called out desperately

"Hang up, hang up, hang up!" Chaos exclaimed repeatedly to Mavis who was surprised by what was going on and didn't know what to do

"Chaos I know you're very defensive of your sister so you're most likely going to be chaperoning or at least watching from a distance" Kaizus started quickly "While you're watching can I talk with you for a few seconds?"

"Sorry Kaizus can't hear you!" Chaos said loudly

"Damn it Chaos I just want to talk nothing more!" Kaizus tried

"I told Hana to tell you to leave me alone so either she didn't do it or you weren't listening so I'll tell you now stop trying to convert me!" Chaos said loudly "And damn it Mavis hang up already!" he said now bursting into the office and smashing the lacrima then handing the remnants to Mavis who simply sighed

"Big brother why are you so hell-bent on not talking to Kaizus?" she asked

"Why should I tell you?" he asked before leaving to go on a mission

Meanwhile in the Council Building Guran was berating the rest of the Councilors for eavesdropping on what should have been a private conversation.

"Calm down kid, we all needed a source of entertainment what with all the ritual stuff we've been stressing over." Chelsea said patting Guran on his head

"Don't do that!" he growled getting moving out of the way

"So testy" she muttered before leaving

"And you!" Guran said pointing at a saddened Kaizus "Why the heck did you interrupt what was going to be a peaceful way of ending our conversation"

"Because I wanted to convert my friend to my side" Kaizus answered sullenly

"Honestly Chairman you need to stop trying that, it's a waste of time and effort on your part and besides this ritual is far more important" Daichi chided

"Look not all of us can hurt our best friends as easily as you" Kaizus fired back

"Hey I simply did what was necessary to maintain order" Daichi said "The greater good must always be considered before personal wants and desires" he continued before leaving

"Hmm I know he's going to be watching you two one way or another, so I'm going to come with you Guran" Kaizus said

"No" Guran said flatly "And don't try and order me around because I know you can't dictate my personal life"

"Maybe me and the wife take our daughter out to see the flowers and I happen to run into you on the way there, point is I just want to talk to him and if I can't convince him then I'll just hope he doesn't get in my way" Kaizus said to Guran's dismay

"I can't believe this is happening to me" Guran muttered leaving as well to be alone

Kaizus left a few moments later heading back to his office which was still as messy as ever, but he had long given up on cleaning it. He went through the preparations a few more times before putting his head down on his desk for a few moments of rest. His eyes wondered to a picture he kept on his desk and he held it up in front of him; it depicted him, Jillhearts, and Chaos back when they were seventeen, if he remembered correctly it had been when they had finished stopping a coup attempt in Fiore by the military. He did find it slightly ironic that while he left Fiore and other places a hero he would come back to it later as a conqueror. He also knew that if Chaos would refuse to join him then he would need to be dealt with sooner or later; he had seen the plans and might try to kill Kaizus or damage his new order.

"If he won't be at my side when I bring order to this world then I'll make sure he's in a grave"


	21. The Blossom-Viewing Festival

Normally before the Blossom-viewing festival would begin Chaos and Mavis would spend the afternoon in their house together. Chaos would make lunch for the two then they'd play board games which he would always win mostly by cheating, but Mavis never figured it out. But today Chaos was busy preparing his little sister for her date or in his words a chance to severely weaken a Councilor making him easier to kill. He was having a difficult time with getting the young girl ready due to a difference in opinion on what was a good look for her

"Ow, stop doing that with my hair!" Mavis said holding her head in pain

"Well maybe if someone took care of their hair there wouldn't be so many freaking knots in it and we wouldn't be sitting here for so long!" Chaos said trying to comb her hair

"It's fine as it is!"

"Like hell it is you're in that weird zone between curly and straight pick a side and stick with it for the night"

"It's fine he didn't care last time why would he care now?"

"Because last time you were in the middle of a mission, everyone knows you don't ever criticize someone's appearance while they're in the middle of a mission." He explained "But everyone but you apparently also knows that if said person looks bad on the day of a festival you have every right to make fun of them!"

"What do you mean everyone? You're the only person I've ever heard make fun of anyone for how they look!" she fired back

"Fine you want to look like you just got out of bed be my guest!" Chaos said dropping the comb and walking away

"Wait you said were going to tell me which outfit looks good on me!" Mavis called out

"Find someone else" Chaos answered

"But you're the only person who understands what outfit looks best" she said

"Too bad kid you're going to look awful and you'll have nobody to blame but yourself"

"Ah crap what do I do… he's the one that always picked what I was going to wear all these years so I never bothered with learning about fashion myself. But I can't let him win this; I'll prove to him that I know just as much about looking good as he does… I just need to figure out what's in style this year" she said before looking for the fashion magazines her brother always subscribed to.

She began exploring the house for the magazines but she couldn't find them in the normal places her brother would keep them. As she searched the living room for the second time she noticed her brother watching her actions with a devious smile on his face. She wondered why before realizing he had probably hidden the magazines from her in order to make her beg for him to come back. She knew that if she confronted him about it though that he would mock her lack of fashion know how and make some other snarky remarks to her. She just smiled at her brother and made her way to the den with his eyes following her, when she left she could hear him laughing which made her annoyed at him.

"He's so immature about this" she muttered as she was getting sick of looking for the magazines

"Ha look who's calling me immature the girl who's so stubborn she won't admit she doesn't know crap about style!" Chaos called out surprising Mavis

"You can hear me?" she shouted back

"You're actually pretty loud when you're trying to mutter under your breath!" he answered

"Just tell me where the fucking magazines are you big meanie!" she yelled

"Language!"

"You use that word like once a minute why should I care?"

"Do as I say and not as I do, also because of this I'm not going to tell you where the magazines are so you can go and experience major disappointment on your first date… just like the rest of us" Chaos said tailing off with a deep sigh

"Fine I'm going to the guild and going to ask them for advice!" she declared

"Haha, good luck you're going to need it!" he said laughing as she stomped out of the house

Mavis made her way to the Tartaros main base as quick as she could to get as much time to get prepared for the date. She finally made her way inside the guild which was filled with activity; most of the mages were all planning to go together to view the sakuras trees and they were relaxing until then. Mavis began asking for their help but most of the advice they gave her was either stuff she didn't like the sound of or to ask her brother for help. She sat at the bar drinking some soda in despair, her date was about two hours away and she still had no idea of what to wear for the date, and still had no idea of how to act on one. Eventually both Catherine and Drexel noticed Mavis sitting on her own looking down cast and they sat down next to her.

"What seems to be the problem Mavis?" Catherine asked

"Hmm, nothing except that I don't know what to wear for my um-"

"Date?" Drexel finished

"Yeah that" Mavis answered

"So? If he likes you it won't matter how you look like" Catherine consoled

"Ha! That's complete and utter bullshit Catherine and you know it, both men and women care about looks first and foremost when evaluating a partner and hope that what's inside is pleasant enough" Drexel laughed

"That's not true!" Catherine objected

"Of course it is, if a guy dressed up like a slob when he came to pick you up you'd immediately think he wasn't worth it right?" Drexel asked

"Well I mean…" Catherine began unsure

"You wouldn't go out with him because his outside appearance dissuades you from finding out what inner beauty he might have. Don't act like you're any different when it comes to that regard, so Mavis you do have to look somewhat pretty" Drexel explained confidently

"Drexel you're not helping her out at all!"

"What I wouldn't be helping if I filled her head with lies and then have her be hurt later now would I?"

"It's alright you two; I think I'm just freaking out over nothing. I'll just put on something and have as much fun as I can" Mavis said getting up and heading out

"Teenagers are such complex creatures first she's miserable and wants our help and now she's leaving us" Drexel remarked

"We were all like that once remember?" Catherine asked

"You maybe I was busy assassinating people by her age same with her brother" Drexel answered

When Mavis made her way back to her house Chaos was still sitting in the living room watching her movements with his same smile.

"Did you get any help from the guild?" he asked

"The only help I got is that women are just as bad as men when it comes seeking a potential date" Mavis replied sitting down next to her brother

"I told you you'd need all the luck in the world to get any help from them"

"You just told me good luck!"

"It's the same… the festival starts in an hour you want my help or not?" he asked

"Fine…"

"The dress is easy just wear that lavender one I got you for your birthday"

"Ah… that make sense why didn't I think of that?"

"Because you have no idea what's in style this year and you never bother to figure it ou"

"Why should I care about that type of stuff?"

"Whether you like it or not appearances matters a lot more than 'inner beauty' judgments are made simply based off what you look like it's an unfortunate truth… and there's your life lesson of the day now go get ready the festival starts um quite soon actually"

Mavis nodded and hurried to get ready, she quickly changed into the dress her brother recommended and made sure her face looked alright before coming out. Chaos was waiting for her and they both left to go to where the Sakura Trees were. The guild and most of Magnolia was already there partying and waiting for the trees to change color.

"Hmm now where could Guran be?" Mavis wondered aloud

"Who knows there are a lot of people here maybe if you hadn't spent so much time freaking out we would have gotten here sooner" Chaos said

"I only took so much time because you didn't help me out when I needed it… that and every mage in the guild doesn't know crap about relationships!" Mavis muttered annoyed as they looked for the Guran

"Ah there he is!" Mavis said

"The kid with a giant staff?" Chaos asked

"That's him"

"Already compensating now are we? Well at least he's honest about his uh shortcomings" Chaos commented dryly

"What does that mean?" Mavis asked

"I'm not telling you till you're 18… well 17 maybe" Chaos said "now off you go have fun and just remember to be yourself" Chaos said leaving

"Hmm he was awfully nice" Mavis thought "Oh well, Guran!" she called

"Oh there you are Mavis"

"Did I keep you waiting too long?"

"No no I've only been here a few minutes it's okay. So umm ready to see the blossom trees?"

"Yeah I can't wait" Mavis said before stopping for a moment

"Anything wrong?"

"Nothing I just thought I heard someone laughing but I don't know who?"

Chaos had stuck around to hear what those two were talking about and couldn't help himself but laugh at them. He left to find the rest of the guild and join them in the partying before the trees would begin changing colors. He took his seat next to a few mages and quickly tried to get buzz going before the trees would change colors. The trees finally began changing colors and everyone stayed silent as the display of colors amazed everyone.

"There's nothing like it in the entire world" Catherine said

"Well duh how many trees become like a rainbow?" Chaos asked

"Oh hush, can you stop being sarcastic for once in your life?" Drexel asked

"Can you stop being so drunk for once in your life?"

"I'm not drunk I'm buzzed!"

"Shut up both of you, I just want to enjoy the damn colors!" Kazuo yelled out

"We could enjoy it if you'd be quiet" Jax offered

"Quiet all of you, the Master's right we should all shut up so I can see the colors I've seen before assembled into one glorious display" Kyro said

This caused the rest of them to be silent for once to watch the display of colors which was bringing sounds of amazement from everyone. Meanwhile Mavis and Guran were wordlessly watching the trees due to a lack of things to talk about.

"Like hell, we were just watching the trees in silence because we wanted to fully appreciate the changing colors" Guran yelled at Chaos

"No I'm pretty sure you were silent because you can't hold a conversation" Chaos replied calmly

"It's alright chairman you were only thirteen I don't expect you to be able to 'charm' the ladies at that age" Lahar consoled

"Whatever just get back to the story" Guan ordered testily

"As you wish your majesty"

"Hey anyone know where Chaos went? I swear he was just here" Catherine asked

"Good question, the answer is nobody cares" Drexel said

"Hey where'd my gun go?" One mage asked looking around him

Chaos had found where Mavis and Guran was sitting and was observing them through the lens of the gun he had borrowed from one of the mages. He was hoping that the lack of conversation was due to Mavis hurting Guran in some way but was disappointed to notice that both were looking at the trees happily.

"That's the last time I trust her to break someone's heart" Chaos muttered

"Give in to your desires and shoot him" a voice said ominously

"As much as I would love to do that I'd rather not scar my sister for life"

"How would you be scarring her?"

"I don't know has your date ever been shot in the face by your over protective sibling before?"

"Can't say that's ever happened to me"

"Exactly"

"Oh come just shoot him in the face already!"

"Kaizus I'm not getting myself arrested just so you can chat with me and then put me to death if I don't do what you ask"

"Wait the Chairman wanted you to kill me!" Guran exclaimed in dismay

"Oh yeah and I really wanted to do it too, but I figured that it wouldn't be a good idea" Chaos replied before going back to the story

"Damn it Chaos if I don' chat with you and make you join me I'll have to kill you when I become the ruler of this world"

"Or you know just leave me alone… that's also an option"

"I don't trust you enough, look this is my final offer what have you got to lose by joining me?"

"What little morality I can claim to have?"

"Since when has morality ever been an issue for you?"

"It's always been I live by the whole your actions must be for the greater good and your actions are not for the greater good… not by a long shot old friend. Now since those two aren't doing anything that I would object to I think I can safely leave them alone."

"They're only thirteen what the hell did you expect them to do?"

"We were pretty wild for thirteen your olds ourselves, well at least I was I didn't know you until a year later same with Jillhearts point is you never know."

"Sure… you've made your decision then?"

"Like I said you could just leave me alone instead of having to kill me but yes I won't be joining your mad fantasy ever, no matter what you do I won't join… okay there might be some things you can do to make me join but I don't think you'd be willing to meet those demands"

"Fine don't cry to me if you come to regret this decision, Jillhearts is probably wondering where I am right now"

"I doubt that seeing as she's drunk off her ass right now, I must say though your daughter is really taking it well" Chaos said with the gun pointed at Jillhearts

"Well then I really should get going then" Kaizus sighed before heading off

"Hmm I wonder" Chaos thought whil pointing the gun at Kaizus' head

"Just try it, I'll put you in jail then give you some of the Ancient's magic just so you can live forever and then have you sit there forever"

"Hmph, buzzkill" Chaos muttered before putting the gun down

He got up and left to join the rest of the Tartaros members most of whom had passed out only Kazuo and Jax were left standing although they looked ready to pass out. Chaos was also disappointed by the fact that nobody had left anything for him to drink so he lied down and took a nap waiting for Mavis to show up. After a few minutes he felt a few pokes to his face and opened his eyes to see his sister smiling at him.

"Someone looks happy"

"I had fun tonight, I always love this festival you know that"

"I mean someone looks happier than they normally do on this day"

"Not really I mean sure hanging out with Guran was nice although I don't think I made him fall for me if that's what you were hoping for"

"Nah I already figured that you wouldn't be able to do that so I just made sure nothing happened and chilled here for a while"

"I'm surprised you didn't get wasted like the rest of the guild did, do you think we should do something about them?"

"Nah, just let them sleep it off. Let's just go home I'm getting tired and today was our last day to relax before the real fun begins"

"Right I almost forgot we were supposed to be enemies with the Councilors, most of them seem really nice."

"They are a nice bunch of people this just happens to be a violent difference of opinions between me and Kaizus is all. But we're such good people that we decided to drag our friends and acquaintances into the fight with us" Chaos said for the first time feeling bad about harming others

"You didn't drag us in we came here willingly and we know what's at stake here, all you need to do is lead us to victory!" Mavis said reassuringly

"Easier said than done kid. I've got a lot of work to do"

"I'm sure you can do it, nobody's ever beaten you when it comes to planning for the long term or the short term for that matter"

"You know it, but the first thing I need to do is 'motivate' the guild and maybe some others to take on the Council"

"How're you going to do that?"

"I have my ways"


	22. Flashpoint

Chaos woke up early to begin his scheming on how to get the mages of Tartaros willing and pumped to fight the Council. He figured that showing them the plans wouldn't guarantee all of them joining up so he resorted to finding a way to get them angry enough at the Council that they'd fight regardless of how low the odds were. The only way he could think at the moment about was getting the Council to do something to wrong someone from Tartaros, but he just needed to figure out how to get that to happen.

"Maybe if I just kill someone and tamper with the evidence to make it look like a Councilor or Rune Knight... hmm but if they somehow find out I'm doomed. I'd also need to point out the person who'd do this and then they'd have an alibi for it and it would be really awkward" he thought to himself "Ah, why'd do I wait to do this last! Oh right because I wanted the anger to be fresh and not planned out" he called out frustrated

"You know maybe you should talk to the rest of the guild instead of trying to scheme on your own" Mavis suggested startling Chaos

"How long have you been there?" Chaos asked

"Long enough to know you're stressing out again" she said

"Well maybe if you had to be thinking of this you'd be freaking out as well; you know we don't have much longer before the Council begins the ritual!"

"No need to yell I understand you're under a lot of stress but you have people who are going to help you figure this out"

"You think those idiots would honestly have any idea of what to do?"

"Well if you're so smart then how come you haven't thought of anything?"

"…Point taken let's go, I just hope they're not too hung-over from yesterday" Chaos said getting up

They headed over to the guild and were disappointed yet not surprised to find that the guild was mostly empty save for the original squad and a few members who hadn't drunk to their heart's content last night. Kazuo was in high spirits after the party as was Jax, but the rest of the squad either looked dead or like they were about to die soon.

"Well I thought we could do some planning today but it looks like we got lost and ended up in the hospital somehow" Chaos commented dryly

"Shut up Chaos I'm not in the mood to deal with your crap right now" Drexel muttered

"That's too bad Drexel because I figured I'd just annoy the crap out of you until you're in the mood"

"Ah! Would you two shut up it's too loud in here" Julia said angrily

"Jeez you're moody" Jax commented

"Shut up I said!" Julia said picking up a table and tossing it at Jax who ducked under it calmly

"Now now Julia I'm sure we can resort to less table throwing options" Kazuo said

"I doubt she's in the mood Master then again neither am I" Kyro said with an ice pack on his head attempting to pick up a table

"They are right you know, we do need to start thinking about what to do with the Council" Catherine said ignoring Kyro's weak attempts at lifting the table

"What do you mean Catherine, what's the Council done to us besides send us a few warnings every now and then?" one of the mages asked

"Who's this guy?" Chaos asked blankly

"I'm Rafael" he answered slightly annoyed

"Well Rafael we haven't been completely honest with you or I haven't at least. To keep things just read these plans and share it with anyone else curious while I talk with the dying people over here" Chaos said tossing the plans at Rafael who began reading them while the rest of the mages gathered around him

"Why'd you give him the plans?" Drexel mouthed at Chaos

"Well we were going to have to tell them about this stuff eventually. You think they'd blindly attack the Council just because we told them to?" Chaos mouthed back

"Oh so now you can hear me!" Drexel mouthed

"You need to actually talk if you want me to hear what you're saying" Chaos said aloud annoying Drexel immensely

"Take this! Kyro said finally tossing the table at Kazuo who destroyed it with a single punch

"Oy Master is this stuff true?" Rafael asked

"Yes it is, every part of it" Kazuo replied checking his fist for splinters

"Huh, there's a period missing over here it creates a run-on sentence" one of the mages commented

"That's my object multiplication at work, it doesn't create perfect copies but it gets close enough" Jax explained

"Still the important parts of it are true" Kazuo said

"I wonder why though, I mean everyone knows they're the most powerful organization in all of Earthland everything they say goes. What in the world would they gain by taking direct control?" Rafael asked

"There are still limits to their power for one they only govern the magical part of the world, when it comes to countries at war with each there's nothing they can do unless it was instigated by a guild or if there happens to be illegal magic or magical weapons used." Jax explained

"If they take over the world then they'd literally have everything under their control" Kyro summed up

"Figuring out what the Council was up to is partly the reason Tartaros was formed, but we understand if you'd rather not fight the Council" Mavis said

"Are you crazy? I'd hate to live in a world where the Council literally decided everything I did… I also wouldn't want a world where there's literally a god who rules over me" Rafael muttered

"Man the Chairman's gone insane if he thinks he can get away with this!" another exclaimed

"Well it's certainly nice to hear you all say that and it does ease my mind a bit knowing I don't need to get too convoluted with my planning slash tampering with evidence, but I don't know if the rest of the guild is as willing to uh start a revolution as you guys are" Chaos said

"Or maybe most people like being free, I swear you're the only person who'd be willing to give a dictatorship a chance" Drexel said

"Well how about we wait for the rest of the guild to show up before we rush to these conclusions?" Chaos asked

They all agreed to wait on the rest of the guild to show up to the base although it did take them some time. It was around three in the afternoon when the last few mages were making it in and Chaos was ready to begin the meeting, or at least got tired of waiting. He first called them all to attention, tossed the copy of the plans to a random mage, and then gave the floor over to Kazuo for him to explain what was going on.

"Ahem well as the plans Chaos so haphazardly tossed at the mages say" Kazuo began looking with ire at Chaos who simply shrugged "The Council is up to no good, these plans were stolen from the Chairman by Chaos over there"

"Ha that's our Chaos for you" a mage from the crowd called out

"Yeah nobody's better than Tartaros"

"Are these guys idiots?" Chaos wondered to himself as the cheers grew louder

"This is serious people!" Kazuo said silencing the crowd immediately "These plans go way beyond the mandate of the Council to regulate the magical world, they call for complete domination of both mages and non-mages under the so called benevolent rule of Chairman Strauss and the rest of the council. Now I'll be honest with you half the reason me and the other S-class mages formed the guild was to be able to prevent the Council from going through with the plans"

"Half of the reason? I thought this was the only reason we ended up for- ow!" Julia said before getting hit over the head by Kyro

"Quiet you idiot it'd be better if we didn't sound like we were using these the guys to fight our battles" Kyro whispered harshly

"Oh I see" Julia answered

"I apologize if any of you feel used by us, but we were only trying to do what was right for the world" Kazuo said bowing his head

"Don't bow to us Master Kazuo I just wish you had told us this earlier" Rafael said which started a round of applause from many of the mages

"And for those of you who are still having doubts about whether the Council would actually resort to something like this, I have personal experience with the dark side of the Council" Kazuo continued

"Yeah they destroyed his old guild and killed everyone including his beloved daughter" Mavis piped in

"What!" multiple mages yelled out in disbelief

"Yeah it's true I was still working for the Council at the time and was important enough to be told the entire truth at the time" Chaos continued

"And worst of all it was planned by one of the Councilors personally" Jax said

"It wasn't planned by one of the Councilors stupid, it was _led _by one of the Councilors" Chaos corrected

"What's the difference?" Catherine asked

"It means that literally the Earth God himself decided to crush his best friend's guild and kill everyone in the name of keeping order!" Chaos said which froze Kazuo "Oh right I never did tell him which Councilor did the attacking… I suppose it is sad that his best friend did that but then again it does mean he can understand what me and Kaizus are going through" Chaos realized

"Daichi killed my daughter?" Kazuo asked quietly

"Umm yeah he pretty much accounted for most of the casualties I think"

"And he dared greet me like nothing had happened!" Kazuo yelled in rage releasing his magic aura the force crushing most of the furniture nearby

"Calm down Kazuo take your rage out on him not us" Kyro said having quickly turned into his colossus form and bear hugging Kazuo until he calmed down

"Well there you have it everyone the Council has done our Master an offense that can never be forgiven and now they're doing this. Clearly they need to be reminded that they can't do whatever they damn well please, now are we just going to sit on the sidelines or are we going to do what everyone else is too afraid to do and replace these Councilors?" Drexel asked

"We'll show them!" the guild roared

"Where did my brother go?" Mavis asked looking around

"Probably hiding from Kazuo, knowing that Daichi did it and keeping the news away from the old man… not a good recipe to stay alive" Drexel answered

Chaos hadn't gone to hide from Kazuo rather he wanted to call Shiori and see what was up with the Council, after he was sure he was alone he called him.

"So how soon are they to starting the ritual?" Chaos asked

"Uh, pretty soon actually like oh a couple of days from now so if I were you I'd get the guild ready to attack soon" Shiori answered

"Just listen to what's going on outside" Chaos said holding the lacrima near the door for Shiori to hear the cries of the guild

"Well better late than never I suppose, oh and did Kazuo get the letter I sent him earlier?"

"He did, but he hasn't opened it yet" Chaos said looking at an unopened letter on Kazuo's desk and opening it

"Ugh, well you open it because it shows the multiple places where the Council will be conducting the ritual"

"Wait multiple places so they were having their disagreements huh?"

"Oh yeah that was kind of funny to watch, anyway Kaizus outsmarted them on this one all the ritual sites just lead to a gathering site disguised as a ritual site guarded by him"

"So he gets the first crack at the power and then any other Councilor who challenges him for it will be crushed by an uber powered Chairman?"

"Exactly, but the good news for us is that he doesn't actually expect anyone to attack him while it's going on so all the reserves and my squads will be hanging out in the barracks so a quick attack should throw them into disarray" Shiori recommended

"Good idea Shiori, anything else worth noting?" Chaos asked

"Nothing much besides the plans also include who's guarding each site, oh and when should my troops attack?"

"A few minutes after you hear the panic going on it'll add to the surprise when the Council finds out that you've launched your elite soldiers at them"

"Good to hear, oh and remember I'm the one who's going to be fighting my sister no one else. That and Caylee says she wants first crack at the Executioners that are guarding one of the sites"

"Sure thing Shiori, it's the least I can do after all the help you've been to us with your spying" Chaos said before hanging up and leaving to go talk to the rest of the squad while wondering how Shiori developed his sister issues

"I had to wait a few hours because of how pumped up the rest of the guild was before we could actually discuss the strategy" Chaos told his listeners

"Wait but wouldn't it have made sense for all of the mages to hear the plan?" Lahar asked

"They didn't need to know, all they had to do was fight the Rune Knights and the other guards while we did the actual work. They were distractions at best" Chaos explained "Back to the story now"

The rest of the guild had been given a final chance to leave if they had wanted to but none left, they were told to return to the guild tomorrow where they would then begin their trek to the Council Building and attack on the next day. Meanwhile Chaos had shown them all the schematics of the ritual places and which Councilors were guarding each area, and they began discussing who should fight which Councilor.

"Why not attack them one at a time?" Julia asked

"Because none of us have any experience fighting together except me and Mavis maybe, but we'd either all kill each other or bring each other down so we wouldn't do much" Chaos answered

"Well I think we all know who's fighting Councilor Dreyar" Drexel remarked

"Yeah Shiori called dibs on killing his sister a while back and we also know Kazuo will be fighting Daichi" Chaos said

"I'm going to rip his fucking throat out!" Kazuo yelled smashing the table they were sitting around

"Sure you will old man" Kyro consoled

"And then every other Councilor is up in the air as to who wants to fight them, so I'll be taking any claims now!" Chaos said although nobody answered him

"Well looks we'll be going through each Councilor one a time then" Catherine said

"Alright the closest ritual site is guarded by Councilor Lockser it looks like" Chaos said

"What magic does he have?" Kyro asked

"He's the _Water God Slayer_" Drexel answered

"How does that work? Did he actually learn from the Water God and what happens if he did kill the Water God, like would all the oceans in the world be screwed up and and tsunamis would be happening all around?" Julia asked

"Nobody knows where God Slayers learn their magic and nobody knows what happens if you kill a God" Jax answered

"Right so who wants to fight them, I already have someone in mind but I'll see if there would be anyone else who's suitable" Chaos said

"I'll do it!" Julia said excitedly

"No!" Chaos rejected

"Why not?"

"Because I already have someone else for you to fight so until then you should keep your mouth shut" Chaos explained

"Okay what about me?" Drexel asked

"Ah just the person I was hoping would volunteer. Lockser relies a lot on chaining his water attacks together, but we all know you're faster so you can disrupt his strategy and bring him down" Chaos said glowingly

"So you can be nice to other people" Drexel remarked

"Moving on, next we've got Councilor Heartfilia who's also on the first floor but further to the back but that's not an issue. His specialty is… who'd have guessed _Object Multiplication _and he happens to be trained by our own _Object Multiplication_ expert" Chaos said getting closer with each word to Jax

"Alright I'll fight him I suppose there is some honor for me to gain by bringing in my student who's strayed from the honorable path… then again both of my apprentices have strayed from the path of honor" Jax said pushing Chaos away

"Nobody but you cares about honor, if Kieran didn't annoy the fuck out of me I might actually like him for disregarding your stupid ideals too, but we must be moving on now" Chaos shot back testily "On the second floor we only have one ritual site to destroy, it's guarded by Councilor Redfox who uses _Piercer Magic_"

"Wait Redfox? How come I haven't heard of him up until now?" Lahar asked

"He wasn't doing anything until this point" Chaos answered

"He was pretty much wasted the entire time… you think I'm lying but that's literally what he was doing this entire time" Guran explained

"That's not possible!" Lahar exclaimed

"For him it was he just showed up to the meetings drunk surprisingly contributed a few times and then went back to drinking"

"Back to the story" Chaos said

"_Piercer magic_ huh? Apparently there's nothing that it can't get through but I'd like to prove that notion wrong" Kyro said with a smile

"Ha, you think your armor is so strong but I got through it with not too much of a problem" Drexel bragged

"That wasn't even my final form, trust me there's nothing that can get through it, I'll fight him and I will end him!"

"This is good we're getting through this quickly. Let's see nobody's on the third floor, Chelsea and Daichi are on the fourth floor but we know who's going to fight them. Hmm ah there's one more site on that floor guarded by the five executioners of Fiore, apparently Shiori's lieutenant wants to fight them, but since I don't trust her to be fighting them on her own I'll be joining her" Chaos explained

"Have you told her that or will you just force her to accept that you think she's weak?" Mavis asked

"She'll have to face the fact that I don't trust her and hopefully prove me wrong" Chaos said "Let's see on the fifth floor we have two very fun fights that'll happen, the first site is guarded by Hana while the second is guarded by the Chairman's wife Jillhearts both tough challenges."

"I hate to say it but I'll have to fight Hana" Catherine said regretting having to fight her friend

"What makes you think you can beat her? She's the perfect anti-mage specialist, there's literally no magic her _Highlander Magic_ can't match and feed off of if necessary." Julia said remembering how one of her most powerful attacks and Kazuo's was blocked easily by the Councilor at the same time.

"You beat her by not having to rely on magic or using it in quick bursts, the one problem with her is that her magic is kind of slow to react so if you're quick enough you can get attacks in. I also have the hand to hand skills my uncle taught me so I don't need to rely on my _Blood Magic _to win" Catherine explained

"Works for me, now for Jillhearts… Julia you can raise your hand now" Chaos said

"I'll fight her! Wait why do you want me to fight her?" Julia started excitedly before questioning Chaos

"Because Jillhearts is without a doubt the second strongest Councilor and you're probably our second strongest mage behind Kazuo so I want to match you two up. Besides I've always wanted to see what happens when a woman trained by the Dragon King fights a woman trained by the Devil himself go against each other" Chaos responded

"Trained by the Devil?" Julia asked

"Yep, she controls the fires of hell, her flames match the color of hair so they're quite hot and would probably incinerate most people on contact… think you can handle it?" Chaos asked

"Of course I can I can eat any magic as long as I can convert it to its pure energy form" Julia bragged "Besides my dad let me eat the light of Heaven once so I always wondered what the fires of hell tasted like" she continued which froze everyone but Chaos in shock

"Good to know" Chaos said admiring her confidence "Now one floor up we have young Guran Doma guarding the site and we all know who's fighting him so we'll skip his profile"

"Wait what magic does he use!" Mavis asked

"Hmm he didn't tell you when you were out on your date?"

"The subject didn't come up"

"Ah, well he's unique he just uses magic… just plain old energy magic no tricks to it I've never fought him so you'll have to figure out how he fights with it on your own, but I trust you to figure it out" Chaos said

"Thanks for that ringing endorsement" she answered

"You know it, well we're all done good luck everyone" Chaos said getting up

"Wait a minute there, what about the Chairman who's fighting him?" Kazuo asked

"Isn't it obvious?" Chaos asked "It's me!" he said further when nobody answered his question

"Why you, you're already fighting the executioners right?" Mavis asked

"Because my adorable sister I'm the only one who can keep up with Kaizus and beat him at his own game, and besides Caylee will be fighting the executioners I'll be there for moral support at best" he explained

"I thought you said the Gods over here were the most powerful?" Julia asked

"They are the most powerful when it comes to amount of magic they can use, but Kaizus and I are probably the smartest who can think of about fifty different ways to kill someone in the middle of a battle. We're also powerful enough that we can buy ourselves enough time to figure out said way of fighting someone much more powerful than us" Chaos explained

"No wonder why you look down on everybody else most of the time" Drexel remarked

"Don't be jealous Drexel, if it makes you feel better you're in third place behind Jax when it comes to battle acumen" Chaos said "Now any other questions?"

"Nope" they all replied

"Oh forgot one thing, the Councilors are all guarding the ritual sites which are the things we need to destroy… remember that when you're fighting them it can save your life" Chaos said "Good luck mages of Tartaros may we all make it out alive or die stopping the Council" he said leaving for his house with Mavis


	23. Beginning of the End

"Let's see what did I do after I left on that semi-bad ass line, hmm we went home I took a nap ate some leftovers, meditated for the first time in my life, and then I went to sleep again. Then the next day nothing too exciting happened, there were some tearful good byes to family members who came to see their loved ones off, and then we began our somewhat long trek to the Council" Chaos summed up "What's so funny?" he asked Lahar

"I just think it's interesting how you skip through portions of this like they weren't important at the time"

"They weren't important and I'm being a good narrator by skipping through unnecessary part of the story"

"How is that a good narrator? A good narrator tells all what happened with an unbiased or sometimes biased lens so the listener can know everything that happened and form their opinion on the matter with more information" Guran dissented

"Who's the one telling the story?"

"You are…"

"Exactly and I'll tell it using whatever narration style I damn well please now back to the entertaining part of the story"

The trek to the Council Building from Magnolia only took around a day of forced marching to finally reach a suitable place to rest before attacking tomorrow. Chaos went ahead to scout out for any traps or checkpoints but was surprised to see nothing too much beyond the usual defenses, a few extra guard stations but that was about it. He contemplated whether he could just destroy the stations right now but figured that doing so would only alert the Council that something was up. He decided instead to sneak up to each checkpoint coat a part of it with his magic and leave before anyone noticed him planning to detonate it before Tartaros attacked. Then he began mapping the places where runes had been placed to capture any hostile forces, normally they were inactive but he noticed that they were in full effect and more had been added in previously open areas.

"Hmm looks like they want anyone coming to take the main path probably to show that they're not attacking I guess" Chaos thought as he finished mapping the traps that were set.

He quickly went prone as he heard a patrol coming closer to him and crawled away into the bushes to begin observing their routes which he knew would take some time. While drawing out their routes and the average amount of time it took for them to complete one he began to think about what to do after the Council was going to be brought down.

"Wait so you skip over the trek to the Council building but you make us listen to what your future plans are going to be? How the hell is that any entertaining for us?" Guran asked

"It adds some humor to the situation" Chaos answered

"How so?" Lahar asked

"Well there I am thinking about how bright my future is going to look like when in the end I've been stuck in a fucking prison cell for the last 150 years, how is that not hilarious?" Chaos explained

"Well it's not funny if you think it's funny" Guran replied

"A sadist are we? Well jokes on you Doma I'm still the better looking one" Chaos said triumphantly "Back to the story"

After mapping out what his future was going to look like after this was all over he made his way back to the camp careful to avoid detection by the patrolling guards. He noticed that the camp was looking more and more like a military one; the mages had been divided up into different platoons to be more efficient and move in unison. He still felt that all these guys needed to do was simply distract the Rune Knights and whatever guards were there, the squad he had gathered and Shiori's forces would be the key to the battle. He made his way to Kazuo's tent which was difficult to find due to it being similar to the other tent thanks to Kazuo's belief that he was no more special than the lowest ranked mage.

"Oy old man you in here?" Chaos asked poking his head through the opening

"Yes, and stop calling me old man I'm barely in my forties!" Kazuo exclaimed

"Wait you told me you were fifty when we were traveling to Drexel's place, what gives?"

"Oh you actually remember that?"

"You're talking to the guy who lies to his sister on a daily basis I've learned to keep track of said lies and also other people's lies"

"For blackmail purposes?"

"Exactly, so we've established that you are fifty or older than that possibly but that's not what I came here for. Here you go!" Chaos said tossing his map at Kazuo

"So this is what you've been doing huh? You'd think the Council would have this place covered in traps but hey it benefits us to see less traps, but what about the checkpoints?"

"Don't worry they'll be taken care of when we begin our attack tomorrow"

"I'll take your word for it, when will Shiori be joining in the fun?"

"A couple of minutes after the mayhem starts is what I told him to do, but he is a bit unpredictable right now...what with the whole he wants to kill his sister thing"

"As long as he does his job I couldn't care less about what he decides to do"

"Well is there anything else you need or want me to do?"

"No you're good oh and Mavis was wondering where you've been so you should probably go talk to her" Kazuo recommended

"Alright I'll do that see ya later old timer" Chaos said ignoring Kazuo's annoyed grunt before heading off to find his sister

He walked back to find his sister's pink tent which always made him roll his eyes whenever he saw it, after finding it he announced his presence outside and was let in by Mavis.

"You wanted to talk to me?" he asked lying down on the floor

"Where have you been I've been looking for you since morning!"

"I've been scouting ahead at what defenses the Council's going to throw at us, mapped out all the traps and patrols then came back and gave it all to Kazuo"

"Oh… well that is important so I forgive you"

"You're forgiving me for doing the smart thing? I should be forgiving you for being annoyed at me because you didn't know where I was!"

"It's not important whose fault it is"

"We're getting off track what do you want to talk about?"

"Well you said that all I need to do is destroy the ritual site rather than having to defeat Guran outright, right?" she asked

"Well your main goal is to destroy the site but don't expect him to just let you do it, he's going to be trying to kill you and even if you destroy the site he'll still try to take you down with it" Chaos answered

"So just knock him out then?"

"Killing him is so much easier solution than trying to knock him out all you have to do is stick a light beam through his chest and that should do the trick"

"But I-I don't like killing people!"

"Not many people do kid but it's one of those things a mage needs to do every now and again, besides you've already killed a guy before what's one more going to do?" he consoled

"I only killed him because I was trying to protect you not because I hated him or anything"

"Just because you hate someone doesn't mean you want to kill them, I hate a good chunk of the squad with a living passion but I need them alive at the moment so I tolerate them. Hate isn't a requirement to kill just think of it as business"

"Business?"

"Yeah like you're only doing it because you have to and that there aren't any hard feelings between you and your victim. I'm sure Guran will be thinking that the minute you two start the fight, but that doesn't mean that if you both manage to make it out he wouldn't ask you out on a second date. Do you get what I'm saying?" Chaos explained

"I think so" Mavis said still unsure

"Look point is you'll most likely have to kill the kid to get out alive and when that moment comes up do not and I repeat do NOT hesitate to kill him… got it?" he said sitting up and looking her in the eyes

"Yes" she said somewhat afraid of the look her brother was giving her

"Hmm I don't like the way you said it, but when that rush of adrenaline hits you in the middle of battle we'll see." Chaos said getting up "I'll be right back I need to get something from my tent"

"Fine" Mavis said watching her brother leave and then giving a sigh when she was sure he was gone, she didn't like the idea of killing someone or how forceful her brother was about making her do it "He's probably right that Guran will be trying to kill me if he's actually guarding the site, ah why didn't I bring this up earlier?"

"Because you're silly?" Chaos answered while entering the tent with papers in his hand

"I'm not silly!" Mavis objected

"Of course you are you're doing the worst possible thing you can do before a battle which is stressing out, you gotta relax a bit girl"

"I'll relax when I feel like it"

"Your death then, here" he said giving her the papers in his hand

"What are these?" she asked

"Spells Kazuo and I have been developing for the past few months, read through them I think you'll enjoy what they can do"

"Fine" she said reading through the papers; the spells looked fairly easy to understand at first but she soon wondered just how complex and power draining they were "When would I actually use these in a battle they look they'd sap all my magic away!"

"I doubt it they're actually very efficient when it comes to the amount of magic needed to activate them and for the amount of damage or protection they can do it's worth it. Also you do need a bit more magic when it comes to making them specific to only certain targets"

"So they'd only attack or protect whoever I want them to?"

"Exactly oh and it's none of that in your heart you actually care for them bullcrap, nope it's just if you're activating the spells with the intent of killing them then by god that's what will happen" Chaos explained

"I see, what are their names?"

"Since when do spells need names?" he asked

"Since always!"

"Oh maybe it's just because my magic involves exploding things I never bothered with names, I think Kazuo's named them on the back" he said leaving

"Wait why'd you give these to me?" she asked

"Because you're the only squad member I truly like so I'm trusting you with these spells if either me or Kazuo don't make it out, just memorize them and someday you can teach your apprentices these spells" he said leaving

"Whatever that means. Hmm what did Kazuo name these? _Law of Tartaros_ and _Fairy Sphere_, ha so I'm not the only one who thought Fairy Tail would have been a good name for the guild!"

"Then we went off to sleep and began the next day" Chaos interrupted

"You know you're awfully eager to explain the battle part of the whole endeavor" Lahar said

"That's because I am, it truly was a fun day what with the killing and all" Chaos said with a smile

"You're insane" Lahar said bluntly

"Oh please you'll find that all mages are like me in some way sure they may not kill but they fight on a daily basis. Those who join guilds end up taking missions that require them to fight large monsters or other humans, are they insane according to you?" Chaos asked

"That's different they're not killing anyone"

"Since when is killing the sure sign that someone is insane, most of the people I've ended up killing have either had it coming or tried to kill me first"

"Even if they're evil they deserve some chance at redemption" Lahar said and immediately both Chaos and Guran began laughing at him "What's so funny!" he demanded

"Lahar I'm surprised at that, didn't one of that Azuma of Grimoire Heart try to destroy you and the rest of the Rune Knights you had brought to Tenroujima? Yet you would say that if you captured him you'd try to redeem him rather than kill him for harming your men." Guran said

"Well…" Lahar said before faltering

"Don't even finish answering that question. Now back to the story" Chaos said suddenly stopping his laughter.

The next day Chaos made one last call to Shiori who confirmed that the beginning of the ritual was imminent and that his forces were getting a bit anxious to get things started. This was relayed to Kazuo who quickly ordered for the rest of the mages to move out and advance towards the Council Building. Chaos and Jax moved ahead of the main body of mages to clear up the path to the checkpoints which Chaos was ready to detonate.

"Hey you two, state your business for being here!" a guard demanded as his patrol rushed to surround Jax and Chaos

"We don't have time for this" Jax said drawing his katana

"Wait what are you doing? You know that we are guards for the Magic Council of Earthland right?" the guard said shocked at Jax's actions

"I'll cover your back just take them out already" Chaos said

Jax nodded and quickly rushed to the three guards in front him and with three slashes no one could see killed them on the spot. The other guards were scared but charged at him under their leader's orders, all met the same fate as the first three and soon only their leader was left cowering in fear. He turned and tried to run away but was hit by a knife to the back thrown by Chaos, he tried crawling away but Chaos was soon in his way.

"You bastards think you can get away with this?" he asked weakly

"Obviously why else would we be attacking?" Chaos asked before drawing the sword he had kept strapped to his back, the blade had a dark aura around it that hid what it looked like underneath the shadows and made Jax sick just looking at it, he looked as Chaos stabbed the guard with it, heard a strange noise coming from the blade, and noticed that the guard looked completely drained.

"What the hell is that blade and what did you do to him?" Jax asked

"It's an old heirloom that's been passed down my family and as to what I did to the guard I just sapped whatever life he had left in him and I'm keeping it as a reserve, never know when you're going to need it" Chaos answered with a smile while moving on

Jax just shook his head in disgust and continued on where they ran into a second patrol that they both took out easily and he again watched Chaos sap the life of a few unfortunate guards. They finally made it to the first of the checkpoints which housed about two dozen guards; they waited for the rest of the mages get closer before taking action.

"They're all here, you can detonate them whenever you're ready" Jax said

"Whenever I'm ready?"

"Just do it now"

"Ka-Boom" Chaos said slowly while snapping his fingers together, immediately magic circles appeared all over the checkpoint and before the guards could react all went off destroying the checkpoint entirely. "I wonder if anyone made it out" Chaos said aloud with his sword drawn to investigate the wreckage

To his disappointment the explosion had left nobody alive, he apologized to his sword before moving ahead along with the rest of the army. He and Jax repeated this process for each checkpoint they had run into and soon they came upon a large hill overlooking the fields leading up to the Council Building. They waited for the rest of the mages to gather around the hill and then Kazuo stepped up to the front and turned to face his guild.

"We all know what's at stake here, all I ask is that you fight your hardest and remember that we will leave here victorious" Kazuo said

There were no cheers or loud cries of applause, simply nodding of heads. Kazuo then turned around, stretched out his arms, and began charging a large amount of lightning in between his hands.

"_Lightning Cannon_!" Kazuo yelled and fired the shot straight into the middle of the Council Building shattering every magical barrier that had been set up and forming a large hole in the Council Building, after this Chaos slid down the hill and began walking to the council; soon the rest of Tartaros was following his lead and made their way to the Council Building where panic was running amok.

"What the hell was that?" Kaizus asked furiously pointing at the large hole in the wall

"We're under attack sir! We're still trying to identify the enemy sir but it looks like it's a guil-"a knight reported before getting cut short and slumping over dead

"What the hell?" Kaizus asked investigating the body, he noticed a small opening on both sides of the knight's head and what looked like a small needle stuck deep in the wall "Hmm it couldn't have been thrown which means tha-"Kaizus wondered then he quickly spun to his left to avoid a second needle that landed where his head was a second ago

He hid behind a wall before peeking outside to see who was firing needles and quickly moved his head out of the way when another needle flew by him. He had seen enough though and knew that it was Chaos using his explosive magic to accelerate the needles to become like bullets, although he still wondered how he could be so accurate flicking needles at people. He cursed himself out for not realizing that Chaos would have done this and for letting his friendship get in the way of his plans. He left the area knowing there was no point in staying there so he went to the main lobby as fast as his legs would carry him. When he got there Councilors Lockser and Heartfillia were there trying to organize the rune knights and the guards the other kingdoms had sent.

"What the hell are you two doing?" he demanded

"We're trying to organize these guys to fend off whoever's attacking" Kieran answered

"I'll work on that you two get back to your damn ritual sites and start it now!" Kaizus yelled

"We need to focus on defending this place, no point in doing the ritual if we're all dead by the end of it!" Councilor Lockser replied

"We only have one chance to do this and Jillhearts, Daichi, and Hana are already getting ready to start you two better join them otherwise all our work will be gone to waste. So get moving!" he ordered but both looked apprehensive "I'll organize the fucking defense if that'll make you two move faster" he said which caused both Councilors to salute before rushing back to their ritual sites "You guys get out there and don't let a single mage past that entrance"

"But sir we're outnumbered at least 3:1 and they look like they have some powerful mages out there who are tearing through whatever soldiers we have" the captain replied

"Captain I don't care how powerful they are just stall them! All we need is one or two of the rituals to work for my plan to be complete and then I can destroy whoever's attacking on my own" Kaizus said leaving

"But, sir" another knight begin

"If you want some people who can match up against those 'powerful' mages maybe you should get Shiori's forces to come help you out" Kaizus said leaving

"You and you go find that ass Shiori, why the hell hasn't he done anything yet?" the captain said with frustration "Everyone you heard the Chairman don't let anyone past us!" he said as he led his forces outside.

Tartaros had the advantage of numbers, surprise, and organization as they were pushing back the guards and making their way quickly towards the Council building. The original squad was ahead of the main body eager to put an end to the rituals before they would start, they saw the fresh group of reinforcements and Jax nodded towards Catherine who at that signal began preparing for a powerful spell. She cut her arm to let blood down her arm then stuck her other arm pointing at the group of guards.

"_Blood Plague_" she said quietly as the blood she had released began floating and made its way towards he guards who had stopped in their path.

The blood landed on the captain's shirt who initially smiled when nothing happened, but it quickly disappeared when he saw a large magic circle appear over him and his squad. He now felt horribly sick and found that the rest of his guards were on the ground vomiting blood, he tried saying something but found himself doing the same and gave into death. Chaos was fairly impressed although he was slightly worried when Catherine seemed to be out of breath for a moment, she returned his somewhat worried look and stood up and gave a thumbs up to him. He shrugged and continued past the dead guards and into the Council Building along with the rest of the squad.

"Alright this is where we begin our split up" Chaos said

"Well good ole Hitsugaya is around here somewhere time to pay him a visit" Drexel said

"I'll make sure to bring my disciple back to the honorable path" Jax said heading off toward where Kieran was

"Oh the honorable path, how exciting" Chaos mocked loud enough for Jax to here who ignored Chaos and walked off to an adjacent hallway with Drexel in tow.

"Where's Shiori and the rest of his squad weren't they supposed to join us by now?" Kyro asked looking around

"He's around I'm sure… there he is" Chaos started and then pointed at two guards who flew through a door into the lobby followed by Shiori and the rest of his squad.

He was dressed in golden armor that covered his entire body except for his face. He had two long swords in each arm, another two strapped to his back, and more impressively had eight swords floating around him in a circle. He was followed in by his lieutenant Caylee who looked a bit bored and about fifteen more soldiers all fully armed.

"Hmm, where'd Drexel go?" he asked

"She went to find Hitsugaya so she's gone" Kazuo answered

"A shame, I sent the rest of my squad to aid your mages outside. The rest of these guys will be useful in taking out any other guards or whatever elite soldiers the Chairman has stationed here" he explained

"Well we all know who we're going after so let's get to it" Chaos said

They all nodded and each moved towards their targets; Kyro took the stairs to meet up with Councilor Redfox who he was looking forward to fighting immensely. Shiori took the nearest magical elevator to the fourth floor while Kazuo turned into his lightning form and flew through the ceiling on his way to exact revenge on his former friend Daichi. Hana, Julia, and Mavis each shared an elevator to get to their respective floors while Chaos waited for Caylee to finish giving orders to fifteen squad members. Once she was done and the squad split up in different directions she moved towards the elevator that Chaos was saving for her.

"I hear you're going to be fighting our Chairman" she said

"Indeed I will but first thing's first young lieutenant I'm going to be accompanying you to meet the five executioners of Fiore" he replied

"WHAT?" she yelled out in surprise "Why the hell are you coming with me? I don't need your help!"

"That remains to be seen young Caylee, Shiori might trust you but I don't and I know for a fact you don't trust me so we'll keep each other at arm's length just for the time being"

"Of all the people to be stuck with" she muttered

"Oh come now Caylee we'll have a ton of fun together you with your funny gun and me with my not funny sword that likes to suck the life out of people… I probably shouldn't have told you that but don't worry it'll be sucking the life out of executioners not you" Chaos said to Caylee's chagrin

They got off the elevator at the fourth floor and moved towards the ritual site guarded by the five executioners. Caylee was still pissed at both Shiori for not telling her Chaos would be coming with her and Chaos for wanting to come with her. They made their way to the ritual site which was empty except for the few mages around the site who were conducting the ritual. Caylee pulled out her gun and shot one of the mages, but the bullet was deflected by a figure with nothing but a knife out, the figure was joined by four others who jumped down from their hiding places.

"We've been expecting company" the first figure said

"Is that so well I've been waiting for a crack at you guys" Caylee said taking out a revolver with her other hand

"Oh don't mind me I'm only here to watch" Chaos said taking a few steps back "See Caylee I told you we'd get along"

"Whatever" she said spinning the cylinder on her revolver it stopped and suddenly a small sprite appeared from the gun

"Woo you're lucky Caylee it's the third chamber _Exploding bullets _for everyone!" It said before disappearing

"Well this should be fun" Chaos said with a smile


	24. The Five Executioners and a Lockser

Caylee began firing her pistol at the first figure who had addressed her, but he was able to deflect every bullet sent at him. She fired one last shot before quickly following it with a shot from her revolver; the figure deflected the first bullet and moved to slice the last bullet when it suddenly exploded in front of him sending him flying into the wall. The blast also forced the other four to jump out of the way into separate directions.

"Man you think they'd have remembered what the sprite said just five seconds ago… or do something else besides standing still and letting one guy do the work" Chaos thought "Still though I like that gun of hers"

Caylee sighed wondering if these executioners would give her any challenge so far they hadn't and she was pretty disappointed. She glanced at Chaos who was watching the first figure who was slowly recovering from the explosion but turned back when she noticed two of the executioners charging towards her. The first one hand's were covered in shadows and he began firing several shadow balls towards Caylee who shot all of them with her exploding bullets, the second figure she shot at with her pistol but the figure moved at inhuman speeds to dodge each one of them and jumped into the air with a knife drawn.

"Got ya" Caylee thought triumphantly pointing her revolver at the figure, she pulled the trigger but only heard a click from her gun "Damn it out of ammo already?" she wondered while spinning the cylinder again.

The second one dove down on Caylee with her knife but Caylee was able to block it with her pistol and tried firing at her at point blank range, but each shot was dodged and the figure was forced back.

"You're good" Caylee said waiting for her cylinder to stop

"You too" the figure replied

"It's the fifth chamber Caylee! _Ghost Bullets _for everyone!" the sprite said before leaving again

"Lucky me, sorry but you're all going to die here" Caylee smirked

"Whatever you do don't try to deflect those bullets" the second figure heard in her head, she turned towards the other two figures a short blind man and a taller man dressed in plain clothes standing next to him. She nodded before charging at Caylee with the fourth figure who had resumed firing shadow blasts at Caylee who was dodging each one with ease.

"I wish I had better advice then just don't deflect them but oh well" the figure thought before drawing a second knife and began hacking at Caylee

Caylee ducked fired a shot to force her back and then fired a _ghost bullet_ at the one shooting shadow blasts at her, he threw up a _shadow wall_ in front of him but the bullet suddenly turned transparent, went through the wall and right into his chest bring a shocked cry from him. Caylee wanted to shoot him a couple more times but was put on the defensive again by the second one who was again furiously slicing at Caylee using her magic to increase her attack rate.

"That idiot! We were told not to deflect the fucking bullet! He must have thought that there was a difference between deflecting it and blocking it, natural selection at work I guess" she thought

"Well when will I ever get an opportunity like this?" Chaos thought looking at the shadow mage who looked like he was still alive

He walked towards the defenseless mage and stabbed him with his dark sword sapping the life out of the mage before once again watching the interesting fight between Caylee and the other woman. It seemed that the woman was winning the fight having made Caylee's guns near useless at close range, but in reality Caylee was the one who looked in control of the battle calmly deflecting the other's blows and working her way into a good position. She saw her chance; she side stepped a downward slash, kicked away the first knife, landed a spinning kick in the woman's ribs, and shot her at twice in the head with her pistol killing her instantly.

"It was fun while it lasted" Caylee said in respect to her fallen opponent "Oh look who finally got up!" she said pointing at the first figure who still looked wounded

"You've only managed to defeat our weakest executioners we still will see you and your friend over there dead" he responded

"First of all he isn't my friend he just followed me here against my wishes; second of all you're one to talk when you can barely stand yourself" Caylee said before shooting at him with her ghost bullets, he could only try to deflect it but the bullets went through his sword and killed him.

"Well I told them not to deflect those bullets but if they don't want to listen that's their problem" the taller man spoke "Well done Ms. Caylee it seems we've underestimated you severely well except Silas here, but then again nothing surprises him anymore thanks to his visionss"

"Visions?" Chaos asked curiously

"Ah yes Silas here is both blind and mute the sacrifice he made to be able to accurately look into the future, I telepathically speak to him in order to hear what his visions say and relay them to the rest of the squad but it seems they either didn't listen or weren't able to do their jobs" he explained

"A lot of help he's been then… finish them off Caylee so I can meet up with Kaizus already" Chaos said

"Or you can just go now" she proposed

"Nah still don't trust you enough"

She shrugged before firing her last ghost round at the man who moved his head out of the way as it flew by him, he walked towards her and as she fired another round at him he suddenly disappeared. Caylee spun her cylinder again and began looking around for where the man went, she looked at Chaos who shrugged and then pointed behind her where the man had materialized. She spun around and fired her more rounds at him but he disappeared before the first shot went past him.

"Damn it, why aren't you doing anything?" she asked Chaos clearly frustrated

"Well you said you could handle them I'm only here to absorb their lives if you don't kill them instantly" Chaos replied

"How about you destroy that stupid ritual then?"

"Oh that?" he said turning around and then snapping his fingers causing several magic circles to appear around the ritual site and destroyed it instantly.

"Wait when did you do that?" Guran asked surprised

"When I put my magic on it, why when nobody was watching because they thought I wasn't doing anything" Chaos answered

"They're stupid then" Lahar muttered

"Well duh why else do you think I keep calling them overrated? Now back to the story" Chaos said

"Why the hell didn't you do that earlier?" Caylee asked surprised

"Because I thought it would be more dramatic if I did it after you killed those five but now works too I guess" he answered

"Sorry Caylee it's your least favorite chamber, the first one! _Seeker Bullets_ for all!" the sprite said

"For once I actually want this" Caylee said before firing it straight up into the air

The bullet hovered in the air for a few seconds before suddenly speeding off to an area five feet away from Caylee. The man from before suddenly materialized and flipped away from the bullet then disappeared again before Caylee could start firing at him again. She looked at Silas who was standing still and realized that he was giving the other man instructions on avoiding her bullets and knew he would need to be killed in order to take out the last executioner. She started firing bullets at a rapid pace from her pistol at the short man who made no move to avoid the bullets at all, the taller man appeared in front of him and with a wave of his hand the bullets all fell to the ground.

"An interesting magic you have there Mr. Executioner, and here I was thinking nobody used _War God _Magic anymore still though I thought you couldn't deflect bullets?" Chaos said

"It doesn't have that limitation" the man answered

"Hmm but it looks your training is incomplete otherwise I'm sure you could have done more damage to the lieutenant here" Chaos theorized

"Not incomplete but I've mastered what little amount of information about it there is, I've taught myself everything you've seen me use today" he replied

Caylee smiled and realized that the only thing the man could do was try and disappear and attack her from behind all she had to do was get rid of the future teller and then use her _Seeker Bullets _to kill the other man when he would disappear. She rushed towards the two, but stopped and flipped back when what seemed like a bullet flew by her. She turned towards Chaos who was flicking needles at her aided by his explosive magic with a blank look on his face.

"What the fuck are you doing!" she screamed out as she back flipped to avoid another needle

"I have no idea to be honest with you" he said flicking another needle "Oh wait now I do" he said before suddenly flicking four needles at the two men, the taller one waved his hand again and the needles fell harmlessly to the ground.

"That was our plan?" Caylee yelled out angrily

"It worked a lot better in my head to be honest with you" Chaos said rubbing the back of his head with a sheepish smile on his face "Oh wait now I remember how it went" he said snapping his fingers again and the fallen needles exploded sending both men flying away into the wall.

"…I don't know what to say honestly, how'd that guy not see what you were doing though" Caylee said somewhat impressed with Chaos

"Well the future is never set in stone the guy probably has to sort through a bunch of different possible outcomes and relay the probable one to his friend, but not many people expect an ally to suddenly start firing at his friend so he probably didn't focus on that outcome I was just setting them up" Chaos explained "Nobody can outplay me when it comes to planning long term… not even a guy who can see the future"

"Well I guess I owe you one and I also guess I'm glad you decided to come with me otherwise I might have had more trouble with these guys" she said

"Don't mention it kid, now that this thing is gone it's time for me to go find our Chairman" he said leaving the area

Meanwhile Drexel could sense a familiar presence as she made her way to where the site Hitsugaya Lockser was guarding. As she finally found the entrance she was greeted by a torrent of black water which she blocked with an _ice wall _she created just before the water reached her.

"And there's the fastest ice mage in the world in action" Hitsugaya said clapping his hands together "You guys just keep working on the ritual I'll take care of her" he said flicking his blue hair out of his face

"Tough talk, let's see if you can actually back it up" Drexel said with a smirk

"_Bellow of the Water God"_ Hitsugaya said unleashing a torrent of water from his mouth at Drexel who just threw up another _ice wall_ to block it.

"Oh right you say all your moves out aloud" Drexel sighed

"What's that supposed to mean?" he asked

"What's the point of doing that I mean if you've fought someone before then by announcing your moves you're only helping them out"

"I'm so powerful that it doesn't matter" he bragged

"When you fight someone of equal strength then… you know what I'm sure we've had this conversation before so I'll just let you do whatever you want" she said giving up

With her right hand she made an _ice tiger_ and with her left hand she fired an _ice lance _barrage at Hitsugaya; he destroyed the barrage with another _bellow _and dodged a swipe from Drexel's tiger.

"_Blades of the water god!_" he said extending out his arms, black water covered his arms and he fired them out as large blades which eviscerated the tiger.

"That's a new one" Drexel commented

"Like it because it'll slice you up like a knife through hot butter" he said firing the blades out again

"Oh please that's such an overused simile" she said easily sidestepping the blades and firing an _ice halberd _at Hitsugaya who rolled to avoid it

The two stayed at a distance from each other exchanging long ranged attacks, every once in a while Drexel attempted to destroy the ritual but Hitsugaya blocked every attempt. She knew that he was at a disadvantage as he needed to defend the ritual site and himself from Drexel's attacks; she began using her right hand to attack Hitsugaya while her left hand sent spells at the ritual site. However Hitsugaya was still able to defend the site and himself although it was making him grow tired due to the high magic requirements of his _god slayer_ magic. He took out one of the canteens he kept attached to his side and gulped down the water it had inside to replenish his magic.

"Just what I needed, well time to finish things Drexel" he said

"Tired already? I was just getting warmed up" she said

"Your body is going to be cold soon. _God Slayer's Secret Art:_ _Crushing Tide of the Water God!"_ he yelled out raising both arms high in the air and a large magic circle appeared over him, unleashing copious amounts of water that formed a large tide over Drexel

"Well then… I'm going to need a big ass wall aren't I?" she said staring up at the tide

"Heads up!" Hitsugaya said with a smile bring both his arms down and unleashing the tide on Drexel who quickly ran out of the room to avoid the tide realizing a wall wouldn't stop it

She took off at high speed knowing the tide was closely following her. She saw the walls begin to crack under the pressure and formed an _ice floor_ and started skating forward s the walls broke to the tide. The water was catching up to her quickly and soon she was swept up in the tide trying desperately to think of an ice spell that would stop the tide. She saw a wall coming up and knew in a moment she would be crushed against it unless she could save herself; she took a deep breath to relax and then began charging up, a large circle appeared near the wall and her _ice giant _came out of it. It grabbed her and lifted her out of the tide, placed her on his shoulder, and broke the wall open to let the water continue past them.

"Wow, these two are so much more powerful than their descendants… and I thought they were strong to begin with" Lahar said in awe

"Of course they are, you'll find that everyone in this story happens to be more powerful than the current ones who carry their names. I'd even say that the only mages who currently exist today that could actually face the ones in the story evenly are the Gods of Ishval" Guran said

"Ishval? I feel like I've heard that place before…" Chaos said deep in thought

"I don't know what you're talking about, just continue with the story" Guran said

"Oh come on there's only one more line left before I decide to take a break… here it is I guess" Chaos said returning to the story

"Thanks big guy now onward so I can rip Hitsugaya apart" Drexel said confidently


	25. Master and Apprentice

Around the same time Drexel was fighting Hitsugaya, Jax was making his way to find his wayward apprentice Kieran Heartfillia. He couldn't help but wonder how both Kieran and Chaos had ignored much of his training only focusing on the techniques rather than the character building which was just as important to being a good warrior. He gave a sigh bringing his mind back to the issue at hand, he would have to destroy the ritual site first of all, redeeming Kieran would have to come later and if necessary he would kill Kieran. He saw the doorway that he presumed led to the ritual site, but he felt that something was wrong, drew his katana and advanced slowly to the door. Suddenly a dark blue lance pierced through the wall next to the door, Jax managed to put his katana in front of his chest before the lance could strike it and was pushed back before he could stop himself. He pushed the lance to his left, used his _object multiplication _to create two more katanas which he grabbed with his left hand, and sprinted towards the doorway.

"When fighting an opponent with a spear closing the distance is often the best way to win to take away their reach advantage" he remembered

He glanced to his left and noticed that the dark blue lance seemed to be receding quickly, he soon realized that this lance was no ordinary one and knew he had to get out of the cramped doorway if he stood a chance of winning. He reached the door way and soon met a slash from a forest green lance that he tried blocking with his two katanas, but was surprised when it broke both of his katanas and only his quick reflexes managed to avoid a deep slash from the lance but he still had a scratch along his chest though. He blocked the other lance which was on the offensive once more and flipped back to catch a break.

"Looks you still got it Master, anyone else would probably be dead by now" he heard a voice say

"Looks like you have some new toys Kieran" Jax replied

"You like them? They're weapons said to have been used by the Ancients themselves so many years ago" Kieran said spinning both lances easily

"Hmm looks like the green one is able to cut through most things quite easily while the dark blue one can modify its length according to what you want… am I correct?" Jax theorized

"Haha, already you've figured out their properties I must say I forgot just how smart you were, but it doesn't matter I'm going to win either way and make sure the ritual stays safe" Kieran complemented

"I assume it's in the room behind you?"

"You got it, beat me and nobody else can stop you… shall we begin?"

"Whenever you're ready"

Jax replicated three more katanas two of which he kicked at Kieran who sliced apart both of them with his green lance. He then ran towards Jax and extended his blue lance out aimed at his master's chest, Jax sidestepped the lance and with several quick slashes from his katanas managed to break the lance into two pieces. He kicked up the bladed portion of the lance and with another kick sent it flying towards Kieran who ducked out of the way. Jax closed the distance quickly and began a quick flurry of attacks at Kieran before he could replicate the blue lance again. Kieran was being pushed back and being forced to use his other lance for defense couldn't break Jax's weapons, he then parried away Jax's katana and aimed a high kick at Jax which was blocked but it gave Kieran some breathing room for the time being. He quickly replicated the green lance and now began his own offensive.

"This isn't good, I can't block any of his attacks but I also can't dodge forever" Jax thought trying to formulate a plan in his head.

He knew that breaking one of the lances would give him a brief respite and slowly move Kieran closer to his _object multiplication_ limit. Kieran exchanged an unlimited amount of _object multiplication_ for the ability to replicate an object perfectly, something that was very useful when the object had magical properties like in this instance. Jax remembered that Kieran could get up to seven copies of an object so it would be a long process if he would meticulously try and break every lance, time however was something he didn't have though if he wanted to stop the ritual. He saw the handle of Kieran's broken blue lance and knew he couldn't let Kieran get it again, he quickly formulated a plan in his head; he began replicating as many katanas as he possible could while staying on the defensive.

"He's basically throwing things at me at this point" Kieran thought as he was spinning both of his lances to break the katanas more efficiently.

"Got it" Jax said triumphantly as he managed to get to the fallen lance

"Oh what are you going to do with that, it's broken you idiot I'm the only one who can fix it" Kieran scoffed

"Oh I know that" Jax said as a magic circle appeared over the lance and soon copies of it were appearing on the ground

"What are you doing" Kieran said confused

"Like you said you're the only who can fix it, but you can't fix what didn't have any magical properties to begin with right?" Jax said as he finished creating over one hundred of the lances and scattered them in every direction

"Well I will admit that you've made a lot of lances for me to sort through but the fact that your copies become more obvious as you make more kind of whittles down what lances I need to go through. Besides I still have these lances which are all I need to take you down" Kieran responded with a confident smirk

He advanced towards Jax who began an intricate sword dance that was sweeping up the fallen katanas and broken blades and he tossed them at Kieran who again was forced to try and deflect the endless amount of blades. However the amount was too great for him and he felt the blades cutting into him in different locations all over his body, if Jax kept this up Kieran knew eventually he was going to give in to blood loss and he had to act now. He replicated the lances in his hand to the maximum amount he could and kicked two of them towards Jax, Jax sidestepped them easily but Kieran was glad to make him stop the sword dance.

"What's wrong Kieran you look flustered to me?" Jax asked

"Shut up old man!" Kieran yelled out with blood starting to obscure his vision "When did I get a cut there?" he wondered as he started feeling weak

"This battle is over Kieran do the honorable thing and surrender" Jax recommended

"Ha! You think you've won? I can still kill you just watch" he yelled back defiantly

Jax just sighed knowing he had to end things quickly and that Kieran was most likely going to die trying to stop him. He replicated even more katanas which he scattered throughout the battle field; he ran towards Kieran and resumed his attack on Kieran. Kieran was able to block the attacks at first but he couldn't prevent Jax from knocking away the copies of his green lance away from him and soon Kieran only had the two in his hands left. He had to end this soon, the blood loss was beginning to affect him and it was hard to keep up with Jax let alone try and remain standing. He began a furious offensive desperately trying to break his master's defenses, however each time he managed to break one of Jax's katanas Jax would simply pick up a replacement that was usually close by and stay safe from Kieran's assault he could only land a few scratches that didn't affect Jax too much. Kieran then went for broke deliberately opening up his defenses to force his master into an attack and relying on his lances' longer reach to defeat Jax. Jax knew it was a ploy but used this as a way to end the fight now; he picked up more katanas until he was holding three in each hand and charged towards Kieran. They both rushed at each other and with a quick burst of speed were soon past each other.

"Sorry Kieran" Jax said sheathing his katana as the other five he held broke apart

"No way… I can't lose" Kieran said weakly looking down at the long slash across his chest before falling over

"Don't worry about your life, after I destroy the ritual I'll see to your wounds" Jax said leaving towards the ritual

"Like hell you will" Kieran muttered and weakly started crawling towards the many blue lances "The real one has to be in here somewhere"

Jax shook his head and went inside the chamber where he saw the site in its entirety; what looked like a large pool had been set up and filled with a substance he couldn't recognize. There were five mages around it who seemed to be conducting the ritual, all stood in magic circles, and they seemed to be chanting in a strange language. He didn't waste any time though and he set upon each of them with his katana quickly killing the mages who strangely didn't even notice being cut apart. He sheathed his katana before the last mage fell and began walking away, suddenly whatever was inside the pool began hissing and soon lightning was striking in random directions. He realized that since the ritual had been stopped in mid ceremony the summoning of the magic wasn't complete so whatever had been summoned was unstable and being released in violent outbursts of magic. He managed to get out before getting struck by any of the lightning but then he felt a piercing pain in his back, he looked down to see one of Kieran's blue lances sticking out from his stomach. He could feel blood coming out of his mouth and spat some out, he turned around slowly to see a smiling Kieran.

"I told you I'd find my lance" he said with a small laugh

"Catherine, I'm sorry but I'll have to leave you now" Jax said quietly as he fell to his knees and then collapsed forward feeling the little life he had in his body seep away.

"Oh it always makes me laugh whenever I think about how Jax died like this" Chaos said with a bright smile

"How can you laugh at your own Master being killed?" Lahar said with disgust

"It's easy actually all I need to do is keep thinking about it and I just laugh, besides why should I care that he died? The man obviously didn't like me and this was karma biting him in the ass… or well stomach actually. Anyway he did his job I honestly didn't care what happened after that" Chaos explained

"Well that certainly was a very entertaining fight, who's next?" Guran asked trying to diffuse the tension in the room

"Hmm I could go back to Drexel's fight but honestly I think I can leave that one alone for a little while because I think they're in the middle of some banter right now. Ah I know Kyro's fight with Jackie was good" Chaos said returning to the story

Jackie sat on a bench watching the ritual take place with a bottle of whiskey in his hand; he took another swig wondering why he was being forced to guard this area. They could have easily just put an army or something to block whoever was coming this way, all he wanted to do was get drunk and maybe gamble sometime later after this was all done.

"I hope that Kaizus doesn't make gambling illegal when he becomes ruler of the world" he thought to himself gulping down the whiskey until it was finished "Can one of you guys go get me another one?" he asked to the mages conducting the ritual

He was met with silence and he remembered being told that once the mages began the ritual they were compelled to finish the ritual, anyone who stopped them in between would end the ritual immediately and cause catastrophic destruction in the area. He sighed before deciding to take a walk outside and to perhaps find something else to drink and put on his straw hat before heading off, as soon as he walked outside though he was met with a punch to his face that knocked his straw hat off.

"That wasn't nice" he said looking fairly unfazed by the punch

"We are opponents after all" Kyro replied

"Still though you're punching my pretty face what're you going to do if my game with the ladies goes down because of this?" Jackie asked

"Well that assumes you're able to beat me" Kyro said withdrawing his hand

"You bastard, that's my line" Jackie said grabbing his bottle of whiskey and smashing it over Kyro's head "Now we're even"

"Now that wasn't nice who honestly hits people over the head with a bottle of whiskey anymore?" Kyro asked looking like nothing had happened

"Hmm you look like you might take a while for me to beat" Jackie muttered picking up his hat and putting it on again

Kyro aimed another punch at Jackie who was able to grab Kyro's fist with his right hand and with a little effort pulled down. Kyro unfazed by this punched again with his left hand; again Jackie grabbed the fist and brought it down before pulling Kyro close and giving him a headbutt. Kyro was knocked back by the blow but then he suddenly returned to a normal posture with a large grin on his face.

"This should be fun!" he said releasing his magic aura

"Oh he's getting serious now… guess I should do the same" Jackie said taking his hat off and releasing his aura as well

"Well they take a while to release their aura so I guess I'll shift to Drexel and Hitsugaya's fight again" Chaos said

"What? I thought you said the fight was boring or wasn't important for now" Lahar asked confused

"Well I realized that her fight does build up some suspense for other things that are going on at the time I also think she and Hitsugaya were done chatting, besides what are you going to do to stop me?" Chaos replied

"Whatever just tell us what happened" Guran said

Drexel was getting tired of the seemingly repetitive fight between her and Hitsugaya; she would try to destroy the ritual site or at least kill one of the mages conducting the ritual, Hitsugaya would block it, he would respond with a powerful attack to deflect it and then try and crush her with said attack, and then her _ice giant_ would get in the way to protect her from the attack… and they'd repeat this process again and again. Drexel didn't have much time and she knew it, her long range attack wasn't working but trying to get close enough to Hitsugaya was a tough task.

"Hitsugaya relies on chaining his attacks together, meaning that a defensive spell can easily be turned into offense and vice versa… you think Chaos would have just said that" Drexel thought

She could only cast one spell at a time at the moment due to having to control the _ice giant_, letting it go wouldn't mean it disappeared rather she would lose control over the giant and it would do whatever it wanted. She decided to take the risk and let the _ice giant _do what it pleased, the giant seemed uncertain as to what to do for the moment before it turned to Drexel and started walking towards her.

"Wait why are you walking towards me? Go get him!" she said slightly panicked

The giant bent down towards her gave her two pats on the head before it turned around to a very confused Hitsugaya and started running towards him. Drexel shrugged before running behind the giant, with one hand she cast _ice armor_ that covered every part of her body in thick sheets of ice, she then fired an _ice lance _barrage and then an _ice dragon _to aid the giant. Hitsugaya formed a wall of his black water that enveloped the lances and crushed them inside; he used this to attack the dragon which he knew would be easier to take down than the giant. After the dragon was taken care of he aimed a _bellow of the water god_ at the giant which was momentarily stunned by the blow before it slowly pushed forward to the Councilor's surprise.

"Hmm this is going to take the big guns to get you down. _God Slayer's Secret Art: Torrential Burst of the Water God" _he said with his palms facing the giant

A midsized circle appeared in front of his palms and a large torrent of black water rushed towards the giant, this time when it hit the giant it drilled through the giant and went through it. The giant staggered forward before falling down at the feet of a satisfied Hitsugaya.

"That'll show that stupid giant… wait where'd Drexel go?" he said triumphantly before looking around "Oh fuck!"

Drexel had taken this time to kill each individual mage conducting the ritual, as she dispatched the last mage. For added measure she fired an _ice beam_ to destroy the ritual site entirely.

"Looks like someone forget their objective" Drexel said with a smirk on her ace

"You bitch! Do you know what's going to happen if Kaizus lives to see that I failed? He's going to yell at me that's what, and then he's probably going to make me do stuff that's really tedious" Hitsugaya complained

"Ah, you want some cheese with that whine?" she retorted

"Okay now I'm really going to kill you" Hitsugaya said angrily while drinking some more water from his canteen

"I've also never seen someone angrily gulp down water before" Drexel commented to an annoyed Hitsugaya

He fired a _bellow_ at her which she dodged easily while she formed an _ice floor_ to get towards him faster, she then formed _ice swords_ from her armor and hacked at Hitsugaya wildly. He dodged the first slash but was slashed across the shoulder with the second slash drawing a good amount of blood. He responded by firing his own _blades of the water god_ at Drexel. It hit her but her armor absorbed the brunt of the blow and kept her safe while still staying intact. He saw his chance and as he was about to fire a _torrential burst_ at Drexel when a large beam of light drove through the ground between them blowing them in opposite directions. The blast shattered Drexel's armor instantly and she hit the wall hard making her dizzy, Hitsugaya was nearly knocked out by the blow but he managed to get up.

"What the hell was that?" Drexel asked groggily

"I have no idea but I'm getting the hell out of here" he said weakly

"Good idea" she said as she limped her way out of the room soon another light blast came down from above sending Drexel flying once more "What the hell are they doing up there?"


	26. The Colossus and Blood Mage

Kyro and Jackie were locked in a fierce duel at the moment, neither one of them could break the other's defenses. Kyro noticed that unlike Drexel, Jackie didn't seem to be showing any effort at the moment if anything he looked kind of bored with his current circumstances. Kyro ducked a left hook and landed a spinning kick on Jackie's ribs that sent him a few steps back, but right as Kyro tried to continue his attack Jackie recovered and sent Kyro back a few steps with a quick punch to the face.

"Hmm I thought this fight wouldn't take this long once we both released more of our power, but what do I care, you're the one who should be stressing out instead of me" Jackie commented dryly

"I am enjoying this fight greatly, but you are right that I should probably start wrapping things up soon" Kyro said

He stuck his hand against the wall, a magic circle formed over it, and the wall began breaking apart and started wrapping around his arm. In addition circles formed on the floor and it also wrapped around his legs and soon his entire body was covered as he entered his _Colossus Form_. He walked towards Jackie who was measuring up Kyro in his new form; Kyro aimed a large fist towards Jackie who tried punching it back but he was sent flying all the way across the hall into a wall.

"Wait he tried punching the much larger fist made of cement?" Lahar asked

"You'd be surprised about the things Jackie has tried to punch throughout his time as a Councilor. It's safe to say that this isn't the stupidest thing he's tried to punch in his life" Guran said

Kyro walked towards Jackie who had just managed to get himself out of the wall and was shaking his fist which looked somewhat damaged.

"Ow that actually hurt, hmm guess this means I should start fighting back seriously now" Jackie said looking at his fist

He covered his fists in a blue substance and he walked calmly to meet the hulking Colossus, this time when their fists clashed Kyro was surprised to see his armor being pierced through and he soon felt a cutting sensation in his fist. He withdrew his right arm which had lost its armor and punched with his left arm, again Jackie met the fist with his own, but this time Kyro withdrew his fist before Jackie could cut into him again. Kyro recognized this as Jackie's _piercer magic_, and as the stories had said there wasn't a thing it couldn't pierce, as he learned with his bleeding fist. He reformed the armor over the broken parts of it and then strengthened his armor to double its durability something he hadn't done since he was actually learning about it from the colossus who taught him this magic.

"Alright let's see if this works" Kyro thought

He resumed an offensive barrage at Jackie who was surprised that his _piercer magic_ was no longer able to get through Kyro's armor as effectively as before. It would still make some dent but not in time to stop Kyro's fist and soon Jackie for the first time in his life was feeling aches all over his body as he worked himself out of another wall that he was thrown into. He ducked a swing from Kyro which broke down a good chunk of the wall revealing the ritual that looked like it was beginning to summon the magic. Kyro was momentarily distracted as he contemplated whether to try and finish off his opponent or do what his objective had demanded of him. Jackie took this time to increase the strength of his piercing magic and moved towards a startled Kyro who swung wildly to try and finish Jackie off. He nimbly made his way to where he figured Kyro's chest was under and stabbed his hand through the armor, it met some resistance at first but soon he broke his way through the armor.

"Wow what is it with people and assuming I get distracted in the middle of a battle?" Kyro asked aloud

"My hand is in your chest right now; shouldn't you be dying at this point?" Jackie asked surprised

"That's what it certainly feels like but in reality it's just another layer of armor" Kyro said slapping Jackie away

"Another layer?" Jackie asked getting up slowly before falling back down again and spitting out blood

"I learned my lesson from your first attack I formed another layer underneath this one and strengthened it as much as I could so even if you got past my first layer you'd run into the other layer. Now if you'll excuse me I have a ritual to uh destroy" Kyro explained before heading off

"Oh when you come back can you get me something to drink!" Jackie called out

"What'll you have?"

"Anything alcoholic honestly"

"Alright I'll see what I can find"

"It's alright I'm sure someone else's ritual will work in the end" Jackie said lying down in a comfortable position

"Damn it Jackie!" Guran yelled out clearly frustrated

"Something wrong Chairman?" Chaos said mockingly

"Yes, I can't believe we trusted Jackie to guard a ritual site on his own. He's so fucking lazy and any time he runs into a challenge that he can't overcome it with his _piercer magic_ he gives up!" Guran yelled angrily

"I'm just surprised with how well… brief the fight was" Lahar commented

"Well I mean it was a fight between people who do the same thing with their magic at varying levels of strength" Chaos replied

"Didn't Kyro once do a _Colossal Stomp_ or something like that against your sister though?" Lahar asked

"Think for a moment Lahar, if he tried doing that with the excitement level he was at he probably would have gone straight through the floor. He was being smart by keeping the battle simple, but brief. Anyway let's get back to the story, hmm he killed the mages got some tequila to drink with Jackie and they pretty much just chatted for a while" Chaos said to Guran's ire "Oh right Catherine's fight" Chaos remembered suddenly

Catherine didn't like the idea of fighting Hana who had been her friend for as long as she could remember. But there was a silver lining in all of this; she didn't have to kill her friend rather stopping the ritual was her main objective. She finally reached the fifth floor where the ritual site and Hana was and made her way to its location. The ritual site was in plain view and it looked it had already started, sitting nearby was Hana who looked very surprised when she saw Catherine making her way to the area. She got up quickly and moved to block access to the site.

"Catherine what are you doing here?" Hana asked

"What am I doing here? What are you doing letting this happen, I thought you swore to protect the magical world not try and take over all of Earthland" Catherine replied

"I guess that means you're part of whatever guild is attacking us at the moment then?" Hana asked sidestepping her reasoning for agreeing to this, something she still wasn't too sure on

"I am, and I'm here to knock some sense into your head too it looks like" Catherine said cracking her knuckles

"Please don't make me kill you" Hana said trying to calm Catherine down

"Who says you can kill me? You should be worried about yourself, but don't worry I'll just knock you out while I destroy this little ritual over here" Catherine said assuming a fighting position

Hana sighed and shifted into a fighting position and waited for Catherine to begin her attack, she knew that Catherine wouldn't try using magic unless she had an opening to exploit. Catherine rushed forward and started with a few quick jabs that Hana threw aside; she then feinted left causing Hana to bite on the fake and got her with a straight kick to the chest knocking Hana back. Hana knew that she was at a slight disadvantage when it came to hand to hand combat against Catherine. But since the ritual had already begun Catherine had less time to try and win the fight, as long as she kept a strong defense the ritual would be successful and maybe Catherine would give up. Catherine had also realized her dilemma, brought out her knife and made a cut on her arm to let her blood spill out.

"You know I can always come up with a defense against your magic right?" Hana said with a smirk

"Yeah but it takes you time for your magic to respond so I'm just getting ready" Catherine replied

"You're the only person I know that when you're bleeding think that you're at an advantage"

"Well I am at an advantage right now" Catherine said suddenly sending out her blood to one of the mages conducting the ritual

Right as it was about to cut through the mage and end the ritual, it was blocked and absorbed by a red magic circle that appeared in front of the mage. Catherine was a bit surprised at the speed that Hana had made the circle but she had the information she needed, it took four seconds for the blood to reach the mage and about a half second more for the magic circle Hana made to activate and protect the mage. She knew that she would have to work their fight closer to the ritual in order to kill one of the mages conducting the ritual and prevent Hana from protecting them. She moved to a position that made Hana have to keep her back to the ritual, all Catherine needed to do now was move on the offensive and push Hana back and she moved to attack Hana. Her plan however was much easier said than done as Hana had pretty much figured out was Catherine was trying to do and would only move a few steps back before countering to push Catherine back, she was content to stay on defense as long as it kept Catherine in front of her.

"Damn it, she knows what I'm trying to do" Catherine thought after a few minutes

"I know what you're trying to do Catherine and I'll just say this now, it's not going to work" Hana told Catherine

"What to do" Catherine thought she looked down and noticed that her blood had run down to her fingers "Oh… I'm an idiot" she thought as she took her knife and made a cut above her other arm until the blood ran down her fingers again

"What in the world is she doing over there?" Hana wondered somewhat sickened at the sight of blood running down her friend's arm "Whoa, looks like all I need is a few more minutes" she said noticing the change in atmosphere

Catherine cursed that she had wasted this much time and knew she had to finish things off quickly. She first tried moving around Hana who moved just as quickly to stay in front of her; Catherine smiled as she aimed a few punches at Hana's face that Hana blocked easily but the blood on Catherine's fingers had landed on several spots on Hana's body. Catherine then manipulated the blood to slice off towards the mages conducting the ritual, the blood first cut deep into Hana in multiple spots causing her to cry out in pain and shock as she collapsed into Catherine's arm. She tried to protect the mages but Catherine grabbed her arms and stopped her from protecting the mages. The blood sliced through three of the mages killing them instantly, more than enough for Catherine to have ended the ritual. Suddenly the magic that had been gathering inside the pool began convulsing and shot out in violent outbursts that barely missed where Catherine and Hana were.

"We need to get out of here now, this whole room is pretty much gone" Hana said

"What about the mages who are still alive?" Catherine asked pointing at the mages still in the circle

"There's no helping them now, they're trapped in there until the ritual was supposed to end. But since it never ended they're just trapped in there until they're dead" Hana said to Catherine's shock

Catherine carried Hana as they made their way out of the room as fast as she could carry her fallen friend. Right before they were about to get out a shot of lightning came straight towards the two, Catherine quickly pushed Hana out of the way and was shot through the leg by the lightning knocking her down.

"Catherine!" Hana exclaimed crawling towards her and pulling her out of the room "Why did you even bother saving me?"

"Because we're still friends you idiot" Catherine said with a weak smile

"I'm sorry I ever did this stupid ritual and was willing to hurt you to see it happen, come on let's get out of here" Hana said picking Catherine up and they began limping away to find an elevator.

They finally found an elevator that was still working and Hana tried moving towards it before Catherine stopped momentarily.

"What's wrong?" Hana asked worriedly

"I don't know… but I feel like something bad happened to Uncle Jax"


	27. Gods and the Siblings Dreyar

Shiori couldn't remember the last time he felt so giddy before in his life, sure there was the time when he managed to complete his bounty hunter action figure set… which his sister promptly broke. But that did not factor into why he was so happy about the idea of killing his sister, the real reason was far more complex than that but he was only thinking about the fight that was fast approaching. He noticed that the guards at this level seemed more organized and prepared than the ones who were outside fighting, but nothing was going to stop him and he cut through them without much effort. There were also piles of ash and char marks all over the wall as he walked towards the ritual site his sister was guarding.

"I guess Kazuo was here… well as long as he doesn't fight my sister I couldn't care less what he decides to do" Shiori thought getting closer to where his sister was.

Chelsea sat on her own watching the ritual being conducted with mild curiosity; there really wasn't anything else to keep her entertained. Sure there were the fifteen or so members of Shiori's squad that tried to keep her a bit busy but they stood no chance against her, the bodies lying a few feet away from her were a testament to that. A few seconds after she had finished cutting down the last of her enemies as he begged for mercy, she could hear the cries of her own rune knights doing their best to fight an angered Thunder God. She didn't bother with helping them since she knew Kazuo would easily kill her, best leave things to Daichi and let the two gods duke it out. But now she sat alone with her new sword leaning against the chair she was sitting on although it looked like the sword's massive weight would break the chair soon she didn't care. Finally she sensed a very familiar presence which she knew was her brother coming to "greet" her and picked up her large sword that weighed more than a hundred pounds easily with her right hand and rested it on her shoulders.

"Well if it isn't my lovely little sister who's actually dressed like a normal person for once!" Shiori said walking in

"Shiori" she responded quietly

"Is that all you have to say to your dear older brother? Jeez you couldn't have cleaned up the place before we fought?"

"Oh sorry about that they kind of came storming in a few minutes ago and I decided that it would take too much effort to try and clean them up"

"Serves them right, I told them that you were my target and that only I was to face you" Shiori said disdainfully

"Aren't you the nice one?"

"Got any other smart remarks you want to make before we begin?"

"Well there is the generic turn back now or you will die statement I could make, but I think it's obvious you wouldn't listen to me Shio-san"

"I told you to stop calling me that!" Shiori replied angrily and he started advancing on his sister

"Well I guess that's that then" Chelsea sighed holding out her left hand pointing at Shiori's swords and a magic circle appeared in front of it. However to her surprise nothing happened and Shiori started laughing at her face.

"What's wrong Chelsea you look like you forgot something important" he laughed

"Why isn't my _time arc _working on your swords, you're only using telekinesis but that doesn't mean I can't age the crap out of them until they rust over." she answered

"Except they aren't being held up by telekinesis"

"Then what the hell are you doing to them?"

"Simple, I give life to the lifeless in this case I breathed life into my swords over here and they bend to my will" he answered with smile

"You used _Living Magic _on them? That's forbidden magic!" she exclaimed

"There are a lot of things in the Book of Zeref that would help out the Council if they weren't so scared of black magic"

"You've been twisted by that damn book haven't you? What happened to you Shio-san you used to be the paragon of loyalty and virtue to the Council, now look at you"

"I said stop calling me that!" he yelled and his swords seemed to react to his rage and three of them moved to attack Chelsea

She knocked the first two away with a single blow from her sword and the third one she blocked before she sliced it in half with a down ward slash. She threw a knife at Shiori, stuck her hand out with a magic circle appearing in front of it, and soon hundreds of knives appeared and made their way towards Shiori. The swords around Shiori formed a rotating shield in front of him that deflected the knives that were converging on his heart. Shiori quickly ran towards Chelsea to stop her from continually manipulating the knife and keeping him on the defensive. He noticed the knife had once again replicated to hundreds of copies and was headed towards his back, his swords made a rotating sword behind him to block the knives once again. However this time he felt a knife clang against his armor that deflected it, albeit a small portion of it chipped away, soon Chelsea was rewinding and fast forwarding the knife to attack the weakened portion of his armor and slowly the armor was giving way.

"Stupid swords get this fucking knife off me before it saws my bones in half!" he yelled out angrily to his swords whom immediately reacted to deflect the knife away from him

"Aww, trouble in paradise Shio-chan?" Chelsea asked mockingly

"Would you shut up and die already?" Shiori asked angrily

The swords began a concerted effort to try and break through Chelsea's defenses; however Chelsea was easily using her large blade to keep the blades away from her and was able to slice another sword in half. Shiori cursed as once the swords were cut in half, it was akin to losing whatever life they had in them and they became useless to him unless they would be repaired, but unless they were repaired he knew he was running out of swords. Chelsea wondered about restoring the blades to use for herself but quickly realized that Shiori could easily re-breathe life into them and use them against her so she decided against it and simply focused on waiting for the right moment to counter attack. As it would have it, her moment came soon as there was a brief respite in the swords' attacks due to them having to defend Shiori from multiple knife attacks she was using with her _time arc _magic; with several quick slashes she cut apart the swords attacking her leaving Shiori with one live sword and the two swords in his hands.

"This isn't good I didn't want to attack her with my swords because that blade of her can cut them apart very easily, but I'm nearly out of blades as it is. I guess I have only one choice" Shiori thought

He suddenly broke from his attacks on Chelsea leaving her confused as to what he was planning; he hammered down her knife and ordered his last floating blade to hold the knife in place. The sword stabbed through the knife and held it in place, Chelsea tried restoring it but every time she did the knife was immediately broken by the sword much to her annoyance.

"Well it was fun while it lasted I guess" Chelsea sighed as she finally gave up

"Now that your damn knife is out of the way this fight will be much easier for me" Shiori said spinning his swords easily

"If only I had the foresight to bring a second knife, then this fight would be a lot more fun for me" Chelsea said holding her sword pointed at Shiori

Meanwhile Kazuo was angrily searching for his former best friend and now worst enemy Daichi Neekis.

"Angrily searching?" Lahar asked

"You know searching while completely destroying everything in his path: pillars, walls, unfortunate guards who got in his way and the likes" Chaos explained

While angrily searching for Daichi he kept replaying how calm and excited Daichi seemed to see Kazuo when they had last met. There was no hint of remorse or regret in Daichi's voice, he had either enjoyed destroying Kazuo's guild or at least felt no guilt about it which fueled Kazuo's already immense rage. The piles of ash he had left behind were the testament to his rage, and he swore on his daughter's and everyone from his guild's memories that he would make sure Daichi died a horrible death. He finally found Daichi calmly watching him as Kazuo entered in his _lightning form_ and the minute he saw Daichi released his full magic aura that nearly destroyed the area around him entirely. He charged up his magic and fired a _lightning cannon_ right at Daichi, Daichi waited for a few moments before he raised his arms up and a large _earth wall_ rose up in front of him and absorbed the _lightning cannon_. Daichi then pointed his arms at Kazuo and immediately the _earth wall_ moved at a rapid pace to Kazuo who with a lightning powered punch crushed it with one blow.

"Haha old friend looks like you've still got it" Daichi said clapping his hands

"Don't you dare call me friend, after all that you've done against the people I loved and cared for you'll be lucky if you get a quick death after today!" Kazuo yelled out

"Now who told you what I did to your guild?" Daichi asked curiously

"Who do you think? The assassin Chaos did and now I'm going to see you dead and the rest of the Council crushed today!" Kazuo said assuming his _lightning form _and charged towards Daichi

"I guess this is what I get for letting you have a guild again, looks like I'll have to bring one of your guilds in line again" Daichi said releasing his entire magic aura as well

The two clashed at the middle of the room and the sheer force of the attack sections of the floor flying different directions, Daichi quickly formed a large _earth wall _around the ritual to keep it safe from the crossfire. The two begin trading punches with each other and finally hit each other at the same time sending both of them flying backwards. Kazuo righted himself and fired a ball of lightning into the air and soon lightning was raining down at random the few that found Daichi he shrugged off like they were nothing.

"Come now you'll have to do better than send a few lightning bolts at me if you want to bring me down" Daichi laughed

"Oh don't worry that's the least of your concerns right now" Kazuo said

He extended out his arms to both sides and lightning started appearing on his arms in a circular form. He started swinging his arms in a circular pattern and the lightning circles shot off and made their way to Daichi. Daichi noticed the way they were cutting through the remnants of the floor and realized that these were _lightning blades_ and were a piercing spell. He dodged the blades but noticed that Kazuo was sending a steady stream of blades towards Daichi who quickly realized that dodging them wouldn't be to his advantage at all. He charged up his aura before firing placing his hands on the ground where a large magic circle appeared underneath.

"_Rock Titan!_" he yelled out

A large amount of jagged pillars rose out of the ground taking the brunt of the blades and forced Kazuo to step out of the way of the spiked pillars. Soon a large amount had appeared in the form of a large titan and Daichi made his way to the top overlooking Kazuo. Kazuo had never seen Daichi use this spell before but he knew this spell benefited Daichi greatly; not only did it provide a large defense for him but it also gave him an ample amount of earth to work with. Kazuo could also sense the ritual site getting close to activation and for the first time in his life could feel a magic power far greater than either his or Daichi's beginning to materialize. He looked up to see his lightning ball still sending off lightning bolts at random and he gave a smile now knowing what to do. He floated up to the top of the room and raised both his hands to the air.

"_Five layer Atomic Blast" _he yelled out

"Are you stupid if you try that here you might as well destroy your comrades in the building as well!" Daichi yelled out

"Oh come now Daichi don't you have a little faith in my ability to control my magic? I've also never heard you sounding this desperate before" Kazuo said with a smile as the five magic circles appeared over him with the lightning ball already formed at the top

The lightning ball began going through each layer and increased in both size and velocity and made its way towards Daichi. Daichi quickly formed his hands together at the wrist and fired his largest _earth rampage_ at the lightning ball, a near endless amount of spiked rocks came out of his palms, momentarily stopped the _atomic blast_ mid flight and quickly pushed it back up before destroying it entirely.

"Haha, Kazuo you're most powerful spell was useless against me. As long as I'm standing on the titan here my power is increased nearly two fold there's no way you can beat me" Daichi bragged

"Is that so?" Kazuo said firing his _lightning cannon _at Daichi

"Oh please if you think that's going to work then I don't know what to say" Daichi said

Right as he was about to raise the titan up to block the attack he was suddenly struck by a large bolt of lightning. He looked up in pain and realized that the magic circles were still there and the lightning bolts going through them had increased in power, enough to momentarily stun him. He screamed in anger and pain as he was struck right through the midsection by the large beam of lightning and the momentum carried him off his titan and he fell onto the ground. He coughed up blood and could feel the life going away from him as he heard Kazuo's footsteps getting closer and closer to him. Kazuo suddenly stopped as he felt the power of the Ancients surging throughout the room.

"Oh that" he muttered while sticking out one arm and fired a large lightning blast that pierced the _earth wall_ surrounding the ritual and destroyed the site entirely "Well that's that"

"Kazuo you think that your victory here means anything? There will be a ritual that succeeds and soon the Chairman can bring order to his wretched world!" Daichi yelled out

"Order? What kind of order do you guys want where you crush guilds simply because they have a little fun?"

"Fun? You call fighting legal guilds and raising chaos all over the world fun? Kazuo I only did what was necessary to keep order this world, you are the only person you can blame for you guild's demise. If you had kept them in order none of this would have happened their blood is on your hand" Daichi yelled back angrily

"Enough you bastard!" Kazuo said stomping down hard on Daichi's face in anger instantly killing him. Kazuo took a few deep breaths before leaning back against the _rock titan _that was still there and took a few moments to think about what just happened.

As the two gods were fighting each other the Dreyar siblings were locked in a fierce duel themselves. Shiori had effectively neutralized Chelsea's _time arc_ magic for now but still wasn't able to get past her large blade, he didn't realize how strong his sister truly was and thoughts about his possible defeat were slowly creeping up in his mind. The duel had gone on for a long time before Chelsea was able to parry one of his sword strikes, with a quick kick disarmed Shiori of one of his blades, and then landed slash across his mid section that his armor was able to absorb sending him back. She quickly advanced on her brother and was swinging wildly at him attempting to finish him off once and for all, he was lost to her and there was no point in trying to redeem him anymore but she still did feel a pang of regret at the idea of killing Shiori. However Shiori was able to flip backward and prevent her from continuing her offensive outburst, he suddenly found himself stepping on cracked footing that gave way as he put more weight on his foot. He danced his way backwards as whatever area he stepped on soon gave way, he noticed Chelsea aging the floor to do this and soon found himself fighting just to try and not get trapped in the floor. Chelsea smiled as she was just playing with him at this point; she finally aged enough flooring to trap one of Shiori's feet in the floor leaving him trapped. Shiori desperately tried to do whatever he could to get out of the floor including attempting to give the floor life and bend it to his will.

"I wouldn't bother with that Shio-chan, you see as long as I'm continually aging and reversing the process on the floor there's nothing your life giving magic can do if there's a stronger force manipulating the floor" Chelsea lectured to Shiori's shock

She looked up as she noticed the Ancients ritual finally coming to completion and soon the power was coursing throughout the room.

"I'm sure Kaizus won't mind if I borrow a little bit of this power right now" she said raising her sword up in the air as the Ancients magic began surrounding the blade which absorbed the magic entirely

She turned around and smiled at Shiori who was now thoroughly frightened of his sister and his impending death and tried everything to avoid it.

"Please Chelsea don't kill me!" he begged

"Aww, Shiori I wouldn't kill you while you're begging like this" she said to Shiori's relief "But…" she said suddenly slamming her sword into the ground, a wave of yellow energy was released and soon everything in the room was frozen in time except for Chelsea and her blade. "I could kill you if my _Chrono Blade _here froze time for the time being and you stopped begging. _Chrono blast_!" she yelled releasing a beam of time energy towards a frozen Shiori

The beam went towards Shiori's chest, shattered his golden armor, and ripped straight through his heart killing him instantly. Chelsea started time once again in the room and looked at Shiori's body and the pathetic look on his face as he begged for mercy.

"We used to eat ice cream and watch the carriages go by together" she said with tears welling up in her eyes "Oh Shio-chan why did you have to let yourself get influenced by Zeref's ways and this guild?" she finished before turning back and wiping her tears away as she observed the ritual finally being completed

Energy had welled up in the pool and it gave off an aura that Chelsea had never felt in her entire life, it made its way up through the magical pipes that connected it to the gathering point that Kaizus was guarding. The mages who had been conducting the ritual finally were able to regain their senses as they were able to leave the trance and stepped out of the circle. Chelsea congratulated them before suggesting that they take a break for a few moments before she would go and help the rune knights outside fend off Tartaros' attack.

"So Chelsea ended up succeeding then?" Lahar asked

"Indeed she did, made my job that much more difficult. I realize now I shouldn't have trusted Shiori to do anything" Chaos sighed

"Hmph well that's what you guys get for trusting a traitor like him" Guran said

"Hmm, I wouldn't talk so much if I were you Guran we still have two fights to go before I divulge my experience fighting our illustrious Chairman and Guran you had quite the role to play"


	28. Julia vs Jillhearts

Julia was getting sick of how big the Council Building was at this point, for the second time in three minutes she had gotten herself lost. Finally she just fired a _Roar of the Apocalypse Dragon_ against the walls around her to try and find where Jillhearts was. She chose the path to her right after she saw that the holes on her left went off in a seemingly infinite path, and ran as fast as she could to try and prevent the ritual from reaching fruition. After about midway through the holes in the wall Julia stopped when she thought she heard the sounds of chanting going on in the room adjacent to where she was standing at the moment. She pressed her ears to the wall and was able to verify that indeed this was the room she was after… well she hoped so anyway and quickly punched a hole through the wall.

"Hello is anyone here?" she asked loudly and was promptly met by a stream of white fire that she narrowly ducked under "I guess that's a yes then"

"Who are you?" Jillhearts asked calmly as she watched Julia enter the room

"I'm Julia Dragneel and I'm here to kick your ass and stop this ritual while I'm kicking said ass" Julia answered while cracking her knuckles

"Dragneel?"

"It's a joke my dad thought of, because you know dragons kneel down to him and by definition me? Although I don't know why he took out the k if that was supposed to be the joke" Julia explained before going deep into thought as to why there was no k in her last name

"Okay then" Jillhearts replied not sure what else to say in the situation "Well I think it's fair to inform you that I'll be doing my best to protect this place and most likely kill you"

"That's just what I wanted to hear" Julia said charging at Jillhearts with energy on her fists

"_Incinerate"_ Jillhearts said pointing her hand at Julia

Immediately white fire laced from her outstretched hand towards Julia who punched the fire away with a swing from her left hand and aimed a strong right at Jillhearts who stepped back to avoid the blow. White fire coated her fists as she started aiming blows at Julia who was easily blocking the fire enhanced fists with her own energy covered ones. Jillhearts was impressed with Julia as normally the fires surrounding her hand would have burned through whatever magic her opponent was using, but for now Julia was an even match for Jillhearts. Julia ducked another punch, then sweep kicked Jillhearts off her feet, and landed a hard blow to Jillhearts' face.

"Don't worry Lahar, Jillhearts' smoking hot face was fine after the blow" Chaos told Lahar with a smile

"What?" Lahar asked slightly confused

"Oh come now Lahar we both saw how you were fixated on Jillhearts the entire battle and earlier when Chaos was describing her in great detail, he just figured it was necessary to keep you calm as you looked a bit worried" Guran said with a smile to a flustered Lahar

"Aww his face is growing red too! As much fun as it is, the catfight between these two gets way more intense after that punch" Chaos laughed

Jillhearts righted herself before she slammed into the wall and was able to flip off the wall and land gracefully on her feet. She stuck her hand out and aimed an _infernal fireblast _at Julia, a large ball of flames suddenly exploded in front of Julia who only had enough time to throw her arms in front of her face before the fire exploded in front of her. She was sent flying through a wall, managed to land on her feet, got back into the room, and quickly rolled back out of the room to avoid another _fireblast_ Jillhearts had sent in her direction.

"That's not fair, how the hell do those fireblasts work? It's not like she's sending a stream of fire that then explodes, it seems like they just explode out of thin air" Julia thought

She aimed a _Roar of the Apocalypse Dragon _at Jillhearts who with a flame aided jump cleared the roar and sent a stream of fire from her foot towards Julia who with a F_ist of the Apocalypse_ _dragon_ punched it aside. She walked back into the room where Jillhearts was waiting for her; Julia wondered why Jillhearts had not tried continuing her assault when she had been knocked out of the room and instead waited for her to come back. Julia didn't think much of it initially and shifted her strategy to a close ranged melee where Jillhearts wouldn't have time to send fireblasts Julia's way. Jillhearts seemed content with Julia's actions and engaged her in the middle of the room in a powerful melee. Julia tried her hardest to overpower Jillhearts, but the Councilor was keeping up with Julia and at times was effortlessly deflecting the dragon slayer's attacks. Julia finally managed to get Jillhearts to lose her footing with a strong kick, took a deep breath to charge up her roar, but right as she was about to hit Jillhearts pointblank with it she suddenly felt a searing lance cut into her back causing her to flinch and she fired the roar high into the ceiling. Jillhearts kipped up and sent a large burst of fire into Julia's open midsection that sent Julia careening into a different section of the wall.

"Well I was wondering when the spell would be done" Jillhearts said cracking her neck

"Jeez attacking me from behind how dirty of you!" Julia exclaimed angrily while rubbing her head

"I will say this; you're certainly tough to bring down Ms. Dragneel"

"Same goes for you I guess, also what spell are you talking about?"

"Just a little environmental manipulation on my part nothing more"

"Say what now?" Julia asked clearly confused by what was happening

"You can feel the heat changing in this room can't you?" Jillhearts asked

"Yes it does seem like the temperature is going up, but I did expect this especially since you're using hellfire" Julia answered

"My flames would only affect the direct area around them not this entire room, the environmental manipulation I've done lets me control the heat of this room along with me being able to generate some flames out of thin air. Amazing what the powers of hell can grant you right?" Jillhearts explained while demonstrating how the flames could be generated on a whim

"Ah well then, this explains why you were unwilling to attack me earlier when I was thrown out of the room"

"That and I figured you might have had a trap for me so I decided to let you come back before we continued our fight"

"I don't know about that, but this certainly does make things a bit harder for me" Julia thought

She sent a roar at Jillhearts forcing the Councilor to sidestep the attack and allowing Julia to get closer and start attacking her again. Julia was careful to avoid staying in one place for too long as she now had to deal with fire coming at her from literally all directions but she was able to learn a few things about the environmental manipulation. For one Jillhearts couldn't generate the flames where Julia was standing, the flames never exceeded a certain size, Jillhearts couldn't telekinetically generate the flames she needed to make some sort of motion, and that interestingly enough the fire was weaker than the flames Jillhearts would generate from within. With these limits in mind Julia modified her strategy accordingly to use these flaws to her advantage.

"It's funny, the way she was at the beginning one would think she only relied on overpowering opponents to win. Yet now in a very high stress situation against a mage of equal power she was able o figure out the flaws of her opponent's magic, and is actually planning things out" Guran noted with some respect

"Well when it's her life at stake she becomes smart, but until that happens she just wants to blow things up" Chaos explained

"So she's basically a female version of you?" Guran asked

"Hey I'm always smart… but yes both Julia and I do share a certain fondness of blowing things and or people up" Chaos admitted "Anyway let the story continue"

The modifications had worked in Julia's favor as now she was able to easily predict when the flames would come at her and whether to avoid it entirely, or to let it hit her and focus on Jillhearts. However it still wasn't enough to beat Jillhearts or more importantly stop the ritual which now seemed to be nearing the end. Julia started feeling pressured to try and do something to end the fight now, but Jillhearts was focused on just keeping Julia in front of her and making sure the ritual would succeed and was able to withstand Julia's furious assault.

"Fuck I need to beat her now otherwise I'm going to be yelled at by the rest of the squad if we make it out alive" Julia said after a momentary pause in the battle

"Wait that was her motivation?" Lahar asked incredulously

"It is Julia we're talking about" Chaos sighed "Back to the story"

"Let's see I need a big boost of energy now! Wait her magic is in the air right now and it's in a weaker form which means I can eat it and convert it into pure energy much easier!" Julia realized while taking a deep breath to eat all the magic around her

"The hell? How can she absorb my hellfire magic it's not normal fire at all!" Jillhearts thought frantically

She quickly fired a lace of white fire at Julia although to her shock the flames were also gulped down by Julia who finally finished the process and closed her mouth with a smile. Suddenly Julia's magic power grew to such a high amount Jillhearts couldn't tell if it was more powerful than the Ancient's magic about to be released. Scales encased both of Julia's arms that now ended in razor sharp claws, and most terrifying of all to Jillhearts was that Julia's magic took the form of the Dragon King himself and she swore she could hear Acnologia's frightening roar for a few seconds, the most powerful dragon slayer of all had entered _Dragon Force_ and for a brief moment Jillhearts felt fear inside. Jillhearts quickly calmed herself and released every last bit of magic she had been keeping as reserve: her body got covered in a large amount of white flames that formed a protective armor around her, and now white streams of fire were being released at random all around her.

"This is exciting Ms. Strauss but I'm afraid I'll need to end this now" Julia said giving off a wide smile showing sharp fangs

"You think just because you've entered _Dragon Force_ that you can defeat me? Well you've got another thing coming!" Jillhearts yelled back defiantly

Both mages charged up for their most powerful magic spells as the ritual was nearing completion and released them at the same time.

"_Reign of Hell" _Jillhearts shouted, the armor of fire around her grew to three times its size at the activation of the spell. A large ball of white fire appeared above her and headed towards Julia picking up speed along the way; Jillhearts' armor of fire moved off her took the form of a great demon and flew towards Julia as well who was unfazed by the attacks heading towards her.

"_Dragon Slayer's Secret Art: Raging Fury of the Dragon King_!" Julia said quietly

Her magic still was in the form of Acnologia and after she had finished preparing the spell, the dragon gave off another terrifying roar. It planted all of its claws firmly into the ground and soon magic started gathering at multiple points on its body. Its eyes fired off large twin laser beams that met the rapidly approaching fireball head on before piercing it and destroying it in the air. The magic that had gathered on its wings it released with a single flap and the apocalyptic energy tore through the ground and hit the fire demon hard. However the demon gave off its own roar before slowly pushing through the apocalyptic magic that gave the dragon pause before it gave off what seemed to be a laughing noise before continuing its assault. The dragon then rose to where it was standing on two feet brought both of its claws together to charge up for the finale of Julia's attack. The flame demon had broken through the attack holding it in place and charged forwards with its eyes locked on Julia who returned its gaze with a fearsome stare. The dragon's claws had gathered the energy into a compact ball which it tossed at the demon who reached out to deflect it with its hands, the ball suddenly exploded in front of it sending a massive shockwave that went through the area. It tore apart the demon entirely and ripped through the ritual site destroying it and killing the unfortunate mages who had nearly completed the ritual. Jillhearts was also struck by the energy that sent her flying straight through three different walls before she landed hard on the floor.

"Thanks Dad! Or wait you're my magic that just took the form of dad, so thanks me? Anyway I won and did my job, now nobody can yell at me!" Julia said excitedly before dropping to her knees exhaustion "Boy I can't remember the last time I needed to use that much energy to win"

"Well I need to take a stretch break before we continue our story" Chaos said getting up

"There are only two fights left right? The fight between Chairman Doma and Mavis, then the fight between you and Kaizus" Lahar said

"Yep" Chaos said while popping his back

"Chaos, earlier you said that I had quite the role to play in your fight between you and Kaizus. What exactly did you mean? I don't remember interfering with your fight at all" Guran asked curiously

"Oh you'll find out soon Mr. Doma but I will say this, if it wasn't for you then Kaizus would be the eternal ruler of this world and I wouldn't be telling you this delightful story"


	29. Mavis and Guran Doma II

"Well then would you mind telling me how I ended up leading to your 'victory'?" Guran asked still in doubt

"Still doubting me eh? Don't worry young Guran I'll be telling you soon enough how your fight ended up helping me out in the long run" Chaos said

"Young Guran?" Lahar laughed

"What, technically he's still younger than me… I just kept my good looks while he aged worse than, god I know I had a line for this. Oh well on to the story" Chaos replied

Mavis had made up her mind about what to do when it came to stopping the ritual while dealing with Guran at the same time. She'd focus on destroying the ritual which was her main objective; defeating Guran really didn't matter if the ritual was already stopped. Chaos had warned her repeatedly that Guran would still try and kill her even if she managed to stop the ritual, yet she didn't believe that he would bother killing her or at least she didn't want to believe he would. The ritual site was getting closer and she felt a strange aura in the air that made her feel a little uncomfortable and caused her to go into a light jog to get to the site faster. Right as she was about to enter the site, a beam of magic flew by her, slammed into the wall destroying it on impact, and kept going on until it was out of sight.

"Who's there?" a voice called out

"Hey you bastard you're supposed to ask that first then fire the deadly beam of magic!" Mavis yelled back, putting on her _light armor_ before storming into the room angrily to confront Guran

"Mavis?" Guran asked with surprise

"Well duh! It's not like we have a changeling in the squad, although that would be really awesome" Mavis said

"What are you doing here?"

"What's it look like? I'm about to destroy this ritual thingy or whatever you're trying to do, now if you wouldn't mind just sitting there while I blow that thing up…" Mavis replied while lining up her _light beam _

"I'm afraid I can't do that Mavis" Guran sighed before hitting the ground with the head of his staff

Mavis looked down to see a magic circle forming underneath her, she back flipped out of the circle just in time to avoid a large beam that rose up from the ground and shot through the ceiling. Guran tapped his staff against the ground and it turned into a dark red color, he pointed it at Mavis, and a magic circle appeared firing a large wave of fire at her. She formed a _light shield_ in front of her that scattered the fire before it could get to her, the shield went away and she sent a beam of light high into the air. A magic circle formed above and sent a shower of smaller beams towards Guran; he tapped his staff against the ground turning it to a brown color and struck it against the floor forming a large wall of earth above him to halt the blows. Mavis quickly realized that his staff was converting his magic to different elements, which meant that the fight would be that much more difficult for her.

"Hmm if I could get the staff out of his hand things would be so much easier… then again if I could just fire a quick shot to get that ritual while he's busy changing elements that would do the job I guess" Mavis thought to herself

"I'm pretty sure she's going to be targeting the ritual first and foremost so I better be careful when it comes to changing elements." Guran thought

"Quick question Guran where the hell did you even get that staff?" she asked

"This? The Chairman found this over a year ago and then gave it to me after he revealed what we were going to do with this whole ritual thing, it's got a great name too: _The Staff of Many Colors" _Guran explained

"Right…" Mavis said dryly before firing off another _light beam _at Guran "What happened to any sense of decency you had in you?"

"What do you mean? I'm doing what's right for this world, if a little dictatorship is what it takes to instill order and peace in Earthland then so be it. You're the person who should be questioning their actions right now" Guran yelled back as he threw up another wall to block the beam, tapped his staff again turning it a blue color to fire off a path of _ice spikes_ at Mavis

"Why should I be questioning what's going on, I mean it seems pretty clear cut to me! Kaizus becomes ruler of this planet using Ancient magic to become a god pretty much, you ever think of what would happen if he became just a little corrupt, who could stop him?" Mavis said dodging the spikes and used this chance to try to destroy the ritual, she quickly charged up her magic, a magic circle appeared underneath her where two dragons made of light came into being and charged towards the ritual site

"Oh no you don't!" Guran said while pointing his staff at the ritual site where the dragons were fast heading towards. Suddenly the serpent at the end of his staff opened its mouth and a dark cloud came out and caught the dragons before they could reach the site, the dragons hissed angrily before the cloud enveloped them and left leaving nothing behind.

"The fuck was that?" Mavis asked

"Just some dark cloud that loves feeding off the light" Guran answered now pointing his staff at Mavis and the snake let out another plume of the dark cloud that headed towards Mavis

"Oh crap" Mavis thought

She jumped away from the cloud but when she turned around it was still following her and rapidly closing the distance in between them. She noticed that while the cloud was chasing her Guran was simply watching rather than trying to finish her off which could have meant a variety of things. Either Guran was unwilling to finish her off and was only trying to keep the ritual safe which is what she was hoping for; another theory was that he couldn't use his staff while the cloud was still active, but that wouldn't have explained why he couldn't just use fire his normal magic using his hands or other bodily appendages. Her brother always told her to assume the worst and hope for the best in these situations, and she quickly fired a flurry of _light blasts_ at the defenseless ritual sites while praying that Guran couldn't use magic. Her prayers were answered but not in the way she had hoped, Guran quickly tapped his staff multiple times to get the earth element back and summoned an _earth wall_ just in time to protect the ritual which was now nearing its conclusion.

"So close" Mavis sighed partially relieved that the dark cloud chasing her was gone but those feelings turned to dread when she could feel a shift in the environment around them "Damn it I'm getting nowhere right now, I have to stop this now otherwise we're all fucked and then Chaos will just yell at me"

"Again with the fear of being yelled at? What did your 'yellings' entail?" Lahar asked

"A lot of stuff that didn't involve yelling" Chaos answered and continued on before Lahar or Guran could ask what he meant

"Just a few more minutes and this ritual will be done with!" Guran thought to himself as he ducked under a _light dragon _sent at him while destroying the other dragon headed towards the ritual with an accurate fire blast

Suddenly they could feel a sharp increase in the magical power, but curiously it came from above them rather than the ritual site. Another sharp increase brought both of them to their knees as they struggled to keep themselves from getting crushed by the sheer force of whatever was happening. Then a massive beam of light flew down ripping through the ceiling and through the floor between them before it disappeared as quickly as it had come leaving them in utter shock and awe.

"I still have no idea what that was or who did it" Guran said

"That? Yeah that was me and Kaizus having fun on the top floor" Chaos said with a bright smile

"Fun?" Lahar asked with a feeling of fear

"Easy Lahar this cage keeps me from showing you guys the fun we were having at the time, but rest assured you'll both find out soon enough" Chaos said with a soothing voice

Guran was the first one to get up and he tried moving on from what he had just saw and felt, the power was far greater than anything he had felt in his life and his hands were still shaking. He tried to calm himself down as he saw Mavis also getting up; it was clear she was also feeling fear as her face had gone pale in terror when the massive beam of light had shot between them. Her life was still flashing before her eyes when she got up and it took some effort to get over what had just happened. She focused her mind on the battle at hand which was able to relax her body enough to continue the fight, she waved her hand in front of her and ten magic circles appeared in front of her. The magic circles started revolving faster and faster and then fired off a salvo of magical bullets at Guran who showed off his superior agility dodging the bullets with little effort. He fired his normal beam of magic at Mavis, the circles stopped firing and formed a protective shield to protect her from the blast which destroyed all of them and hit her armor which was able to prevent Mavis from getting killed but it was destroyed in the process sending Mavis a few steps back.

"Damn, it's piercing magic isn't it?" Mavis cursed before charging up her last reserves of magic and began an all out offensive to try stopping the ritual and distracting Guran

However splitting her power ended up costing her dearly in that regard as Guran calmly dealt with the threat to the ritual first forming up a series of elemental walls layered to stop the light blasts from Mavis. He dodged the first wave of light magic headed his way, took the brunt of the second wave which was weaker than the other ones to conserve his magic, and right as the third wave approached his serpent opened its mouth and let out another dark cloud. The cloud enveloped the beams of light before it disappeared once again leaving nothing where it was. The area around them was hit by a surge of magic power, but this time it could be traced back to the ritual site; the gathering point for the magic was filling up with the power of the Ancients which had been called forth by the mages conducting the ritual successfully. The magical pipes hooked to the basin filled with the colorless magic began filling up and sent the magic to the gathering point where the Chairman was.

"I've still got some time" Mavis said firing off a flurry of light blasts aimed at the pipes

"You really think that'll work now huh?" Guran thought as he switched his staff to a yellow color and fired off a series of lightning bolts that destroyed the light blasts and flew through the ceiling.

Mavis dropped to her knees as she had used nearly all her magic and was exhausted at this point, all the training with her brother couldn't compare to this at all. Guran seemed unsure of what to do at this point, he didn't want to kill Mavis but he was worried that she could still do something if she was left alive or at least conscious. The serpent on his staff opened its mouth again and another dark cloud made its way towards Mavis, she looked up and made no move to get out of the way as she wasn't so sure she could dodge it. Things looked bleak and she knew it, the cloud would come and eat whatever light magic she had left in her which would most likely kill her; it would eat any defense she put in front of her and there really wasn't anything she could think of.

"I guess it was a nice life while it lasted, I'm sorry big brother I failed you" she thought as she stared down the dark cloud "Wait, wait… there's one last thing I can try although I'm sure Chaos would kill me if he ever found out I tried this" she thought

Guran watched as the dark cloud went enveloped Mavis and began eating at the little magic she had left, he figured it would kill her which did make him feel sad but sacrifices were necessary for a better world. He was a bit surprised when the dark cloud left that Mavis was left there and he felt some magic that was similar to his cloud's but none that was like Mavis' so he dismissed his concerns. He watched the Ancient's magic being pumped into the gathering point and his mind wondered to what the light beam was in the first place, had Kaizus done it or had whoever gone to meet Kaizus done that? Either way he prayed that the Chairman was alright, if he ended up dead then what was the point of all of this, who could take the Chairman's place as ruler? Suddenly he felt the dark magic increasing by the second and soon the power was far beyond than what he had remembered it being like.

"What the hell is that fucking cloud doing?" Guran said turning around "M-Mavis?" he asked with a mixture of fear and concern. Mavis was standing up with a cheerful smile on her face, but her skin had turned a grayish color and even her blonde hair had turned into the same color as her skin

"Turns out you can absorb magic that's the opposite of your element as long as you clean out every bit of magic that you have inside of you!" Mavis called out happily

"I thought that's how dragon slayers could absorb a god slayer's magic of the same element" Guran said

"Is that so? Well then that really was a shot in the dark then! Mavis laughed "But this isn't a shot in the dark, think of it like a dark ball of doom" she said with an evil smile

She put her right hand over her left with both hands open and facing each other; her magical power suddenly increased and a small sized dark ball formed in between her hands. Guran was blinded by the increase in the dark energy and blindly fired a few magical energy shots from his staff vainly to try and stop Mavis.

"_Law of Tartaros, Activate"_ Mavis said quietly as she released the power of the ball

A large explosion of darkness filled the room and sent shockwaves throughout the area destroying the ritual site entirely and the surrounding area. When all was clear Guran was heavily injured and struggling to stay standing, he uttered a pained groan before falling to the ground. Mavis herself was trying to stay standing as she had gotten rid of all dark energy she had absorbed in the attack which also killed the mages who had been conducting the ritual, but she was relieved that the site had been destroyed and that only a little bit of the magic had been gathered. She sat down in exhaustion before lying down to take a few deep breaths and relax, however her break was soon cut to an end as she could feel another tremor that rumbled throughout the Council Building. She felt an oppressive feeling again but this one wasn't crushing her this time, but her mind felt scattered and thinking became difficult for her, and she swore she saw some of the blocks randomly changing shapes.

"What the hell is going on?" Mavis asked as she began crawling away weakly from the area to safety

The elevator finally reached the top floor where Kaizus was waiting along with the gathering site and Chaos calmly made his way to the room. He was in no hurry at the moment and was humming the same smooth jazz tune in his head that he always played when he was going to kill a target. The song reached an end as he got to the entrance of the room, he noticed four dark figures that he had never seen before or had been warned of. He cursed out Shiori again before taking out a needle and with a detonation of his magic sent it flying towards one of the figures, it went right into the figure's chest but the figure wasn't fazed at all. It looked down gave an eerie laugh before taking a dark sword out of its chest and advancing towards Chaos.

"Ooh a spectral guardian aren't we?" Chaos said taking out his own dark sword "Well looks we've got some old friends for you to absorb now don't we?"

The figure swung its sword which Chaos easily parried and stabbed it through its face… or what looked like the face to Chaos. His sword began absorbing the figure which was struggling as it began disappearing and soon its entire body was absorbed by the blade leaving nothing behind. Chaos smirked and pointed the sword at the other three figures who all backed down at the sight of the blade.

"Take me to your Master!" he yelled out

The figures immediately bowed their heads and opened the doors for Chaos to the gathering site. He walked through and they bowed their heads once more before closing the doors. The gathering site was surprisingly simple in appearance: all the pipes led to a small pool that led to an interesting gate that Chaos had never seen in his life. Sitting next to the gate was Kaizus who was looking at Chaos right in his eyes, next to Kaizus was a silver handle with no blade attached to it which interested Chaos to an extent; Chaos smiled before taking a few steps towards Kaizus.

"Chaos"

"Kaizus"

"So how long were you planning this?"

"Ever since I first found out that you were planning to do this"

"So I guess I should have taken Daichi's advice and just killed you"

"That probably would have been the smarter idea"

"You manipulated Shiori to your cause and all the other elite members of your squad didn't you?"

"I didn't manipulate anyone; I presented them the facts and the copy of the plans and let them make their own interpretations of the matter. Except Shiori, but everyone knew he would snap and try to kill Chelsea one day and I just gave him a chance to do it."

"Hmph, well our followers are fighting it out as we speak honestly our fight will be affected more by their successes or failures."

"Oh?"

"Think about it, if one of the rituals ends up working do you really think you could stop me when I would become a god? But if none of the rituals work then honestly my plans have failed and there would be no point in trying to kill you"

"It's admirable how far you're willing to go to not try and kill me Kaizus it truly is. However since all you need is one ritual to work while I need all of yours to fail it would be better if I just killed you now and taken my fate out of other's hands."

"So you distrust your squad that much?"

"I distrust everyone"

"So you do"

"No more words Kaizus, shall we begin?" Chaos asked assuming his fighting stance with his dark blade out


	30. Chaos vs Kaizus

Kaizus sighed while slowly getting up to face Chaos; he grabbed the silver handle in his right hand and assumed an open stance with the handle pointed down towards the ground. Chaos hesitated for a bit wondering why Kaizus didn't seem to be doing anything; he shrugged and ran towards Kaizus who stayed motionless. Chaos attempted several quick slashes aimed at Kaizus who effortlessly dodged them and the rest of Chaos' follow up swings easily. He jumped back to avoid the last of Chaos' attacks and decided to release his magical power causing Chaos to take a few steps back in caution. Chaos frowned as he knew the battle would be a long one now and he didn't want to risk not being able to kill Kaizus before the Ancient's magic would be summoned assuming one of his squad members failed. Kaizus had finished releasing his power and now the silver handle in his hand began glowing causing the dark blade Chaos was holding to give off an angered hiss.

"What's wrong buddy, someone you don't like?" Chaos asked his sword before looking back at Kaizus when he heard a strange whirling noise coming from the glowing handle

The whirling noise grew louder as now a silver blade began to form at the base of the handle and soon extended to the length and form of a katana. Chaos noticed that the blade seemed to be formed of magical energy rather than metal, he didn't know what that entailed exactly but from the reaction his sword had, it meant that it was a powerful weapon. However he still had no idea what that power was and he had to quickly find a way to figure it out. He grabbed a few knives and exploded one at Kaizus who rolled out of the way, Chaos noticed that the blade didn't make a noise when touching the ground in fact it looked like it went through the floor. Chaos exploded the rest of the knives at various locations to prevent Kaizus from simply sidestepping the knives. Kaizus looked at the knives briefly before suddenly moving in a flash towards Chaos and swung his blade down with a powerful slash. Chaos instinctively put his blade in front of the blade's path and was surprised when the blades made contact with each other and he could feel the force of the blow. His confusion was tossed aside when he noticed that the Kaizus who had attacked disappeared and there was another Kaizus who tried a low slash aimed at Chaos' leg which Chaos blocked again with his sword.

"Hmm that's your _Chaotic Magic_ at work isn't it Kaizus?" Chaos asked before breaking the deadlock and aiming a spinning kick at Kaizus who blocked it and jumped back putting a good amount of distance between him and Chaos

"Indeed it is, sadly my clones can only perform one action before they disappear" Kaizus explained

"So we both embody chaos to a certain extent, you with your clones that defy the whole there can't be extra copies of a person at a time rule and me with my explosions… oh and nice try by the way" Chaos said before quickly putting his sword behind him to block a slashing attempt by another Kaizus who appeared behind him.

He turned around and aimed a magic coated punch at Kaizus. Kaizus blocked the blow with his arm but the magic around Chaos' hand detonated sending the Chairman flying into a wall. Chaos charged magic around his feet and detonated it to get him to Kaizus before he could get up; however the Chairman had already recovered and sent a clone of himself at Chaos who blocked the slash easily. He saw another clone headed towards him quickly and had to shift himself into an awkward position to dodge the slash. He thought it was done and sighed when he saw a third clone of Kaizus rushing towards him; it would be difficult to try and dodge the clone's attack in his current position. He charged magic in himself and quickly moved his body to an easier position to work with; before the clone could attack he charged up magic in under his feet and detonated it in the clone's face. The blow sent both him and surprisingly Kaizus backwards, Chaos had now figured out a useful property about Kaizus' magic but another test would be able to put away any doubts. Kaizus was rubbing his head as he got up; his ears were still ringing from the explosion and his balance was a bit off at the moment. He saw Chaos running towards him with a second sword drawn and knew that at his current state staying still was a bad idea. Before Chaos could reach him he sent a clone that he tethered himself to and moved to that location with Chaos closely following behind. The game of cat and mouse continued until Kaizus could get his sense of balance back and saw a smiling Chaos.

"Someone looks like a kid at a candy store right now" Kaizus remarked

"Yep, because I've figured out a good chunk of your _Chaotic Magic _which helps me out immensely" Chaos replied

"Oh and what have you figured out?"

"First is that your clones that only perform a single action can be sent to a distance of up to twenty feet. Second is that you have the ability to tether yourself to one of your clones if you want to and travel behind it until it reaches its location. But that's not all; you have a secondary ability you can use involving a single clone namely that it can last as long as you want and speak like you but it can't move while you're active." Chaos explained

"You always were the best when it came to battle analysis and figuring out new things about an opponent" Kaizus complemented

"I'm not done Kaizus, you have one last ability that can be either detrimental for you or an ace up your sleeve. You're tethered to your third clone automatically whether you want to or not" Chaos finished

"Is that so?" Kaizus said while silently cursing inside that Chaos could figure out this one flaw in his magic

"Yeah you're face says it all 'Chairman', haha the poker face is not of your strong suits. Don't worry though just because I know what your magic does doesn't mean I've won, it just means I know what to expect from you" Chaos laughed

"Ha, I guess you're right and I do know that your magic is pretty much explosions used in a variety of ways to do different tasks. I never thought explosions would be so… adaptable" Kaizus replied

They both finished their laughing before resuming their fight. Kaizus was maintaining a distance between the two and sending clones at Chaos before trying to finish him off each time after the third clone would theoretically distract Chaos. However Chaos was careful to avoid extending himself out too much and kept a good defense up as he still tried to figure out the properties of Kaizus' blade. As far as he knew it was going through nearly all objects except the dark blade he was wielding, even his other sword went through it when he had deliberately attacked the sword rather than Kaizus. He wondered if the sword would go through him without doing damage but his sword kept giving off a warning signal to him which would make him block the silver blade.

"Hmm you seem angry at it why don't you tell me what you know about that thing?" Chaos asked his sword as he couldn't come up with ideas "…why do I talk to you _Deus_?" he asked after not hearing a response

"Because you're secretly in want of a friend you can trust and the only thing you trust is something that you literally control which in this case is me?" the blade responded finally

"Holy crap you can actually talk!" Chaos blurted out in surprise which also surprised Kaizus who was now not sure if Chaos had completely lost it

"Yes I can talk you idiot, don't you remember me telling you how to kill those bandits when you first wielded me?" the blade asked

"Well I chalked that up to me hearing the spirit of my mother who was watching over me while I sought to avenge her and my dad's deaths at their hands" Chaos said aloud ignoring Kaizus entirely

"Well you were ten so I guess I can forgive you for that" the blade responded

"So do you know anything about the blade the crazy Chairman happens to be wielding at the moment?"

"Yes I do… it happens to be my brother blade the _Mage Slayer_" it responded

"Brother blade? Since when did you get a brother _Deus_" Chaos asked

"Since always, we're meant to balance each other out" it responded

"So I guess it's designed to kill mages?" Chaos asked

"What gave that away Sherlock? Not just mages though it kills literally any form of magic that it makes contact with and nothing else if that thing goes through you you'll be drained of all magic and probably die from the sudden loss of magic" it explained

"Wait you said brother blade so are you a dude too?" Chaos asked

"No I'm a girl blade" she answered

"Do you have like a spirit form or something?" Chaos asked again while dodging a clone strike from Kaizus who finally decided to do something while Chaos was chatting with his blade

"Umm yes and why does that matter?" Deus asked

"Because" Chaos started while exploding another knife towards Kaizus "I want to know if you'd show me the form and we'd go from there"

"…Are you actually hitting on me right now?"

"Maybe" Chaos said while getting into a deadlock with Kaizus

"Are you hitting on your sword right now?" Kaizus asked using his height to press down on Chaos

"Hey you'd do the same if you were in my position" Chaos said trying to hold steady

"Is your sword's name actually Deus or did you name her that?" Lahar asked

"I named her that and I guess she didn't care" Chaos responded quickly

"Why Deus though?"

"To make things quick her name is _Deus Ex Machina, _the joke being that her powers tend to provide a very unsatisfactory ending to everyone involved except for me"

"I can see how" Guran commented dryly

"Back to the story then" Chaos said

As he was being pressed down by the stronger Kaizus he took a calculated risk by taking his right hand off the handle and quickly grabbing three knives. Kaizus didn't notice this and had forced Chaos to his knees and was pushing the _Mage Slayer_ closer to Chaos' throat. Right as he was about to finish Chaos off, he felt a sharp pain in his mid section and looked down to see three knives stabbed into his abdomen. He grimaced with pain and pulled the _Mage Slayer_ back allowing Chaos to get up and start a furious offensive to end Kaizus right there. Kaizus was struggling to ignore the pain and keep up with Chaos who seemed like a blur at times with his attacks yet he couldn't pierce Kaizus' defenses. However Chaos finally kicked Kaizus where the knives were still in driving them deeper into the Chairman who gasped with pain, Chaos finished it off with an explosion aided kick into Kaizus' chest sending him and the _Mage Slayer_ flying into a wall. Chaos sheathed his other sword but kept _Deus _out as he went to check on the Chairman's body to make sure he was dead, but before he could get close enough he suddenly felt a very strange aura in the room and saw the magical pipes filling the gathering site with magic he had never seen before.

"Well guess I was right to assume one of them would fail… I bet it was Shiori who fucked up. Well at least I've nearly finished off our 'illustrious' Chairman before he could absorb this messed up magic" Chaos muttered walking towards the fallen Kaizus

The body was limp and made no movement and _Deus _still reacted harshly to seeing the _Mage Slayer_ up close so he was assured that the body wasn't a clone. He poked the body with the hilt of _Deus_ before he was satisfied with the idea that Kaizus was dead. He turned around to see the magical energy of the Ancients being transferred into the strange gate that was now itself glowing and emanating a silver glow. The magical pipes pumping in the Ancients magic stopped which made Chaos wonder if only one of the rituals ended up succeeding and again cursed out Shiori. The energy gathered was now sent through the gate where it looked like it was being purified and turned into a silver light. Chaos looked at the gate and figured it would be best to destroy the gate and prevent anyone from using the magical energy.

"On the other hand… you don't get that many chances to become a god" Chaos thought stopping in his tracks

He contemplated briefly on whether he should take the energy for himself before he shook his head to get rid of the thoughts. He berated himself internally for even thinking about the possibility of absorbing the power for himself and began walking over to destroy the gate. He looked back to where Kaizus' body was, but when he did only the _Mage Slayer_ was left there and there wasn't a body anywhere nearby.

"The fuck?" Chaos muttered before feeling Kaizus' presence elsewhere

He followed a trail of blood to see that Kaizus had limped his way to the gate where the Ancients' magic had been absorbed. Chaos quickly fired his last series of knives desperately at Kaizus who with his last reserve of magic attached himself to a clone and sent it towards the gate. He was hit twice in the chest by the knives but managed to fall into the energy sending a massive wave of energy throughout the room that sent Chaos hurdling into a wall. He looked up to see Kaizus floating in the air as the power of the Ancients filled his body; it healed his wounds and removed the knives from his body and amplified his magic to an extent that was far beyond anything Chaos had ever seen, even Acnologia seemed weak compared to this power he was feeling. Kaizus' body began undergoing a transformation: his skin color changed to a gold and silver hybrid, his hair became somewhat metallic in appearance, he had also grown about a foot and a half and he towered over Chaos. An armor of a snow white color appeared covering most of his body except for his face, and as a final touch he had gained a set of white wings. The magical energy emanating from this new form of Kaizus was crushing nearly everything around them, only the power of _Deus_ kept Chaos from being killed by the force alone. The magic converting Kaizus fell off and flew through the ground as a massive beam of light. Chaos felt genuinely afraid for once in his life and again the calming voice of _Deus_ was the one that kept him from panicking and he took out his short sword again to face the new threat. Kaizus floated gently to the ground and landed softly on the ground on the tip of his left foot which sent a pulse of energy that made Chaos take a few steps back.

"Chaos!" Kaizus commanded, the voice was nothing close to what Kaizus had originally sounded like. This voice sounded far more terrifying and awe-inspiring at the same time, it felt like it was coming from all around Chaos and it consisted of many voices being spoken as one rather than a singular voice. "Kneel before me!"

"Like hell I will!" Chaos yelled back definitely

"Then I shall make you the example of what happens to those who disobey me and my new world order" Kaizus said placing both hands over his chest, two balls of light formed over his chest and he grabbed both of them pulling out two flashing great swords

"Well fuck" Chaos said with an uneasy smile


	31. The Divine Beings

To say the next few minutes of the battle would be Chaos doing everything he could to survive was an understatement. This new divine version of Kaizus was simply unbeatable at the moment; Chaos' mind was in full gear trying to figure out a way to make this fight more even, although he kept getting distracted with every beam of magic that he had to dodge. He wondered why Kaizus was standing in the center of the room firing unholy beams of light at Chaos instead of pursuing him with those giant swords. He then figured that maybe Kaizus was trying to get used to his new form and powers, granted not many people had ever made the transition from human to god before so he couldn't blame him. This was a silver lining for Chaos because it meant that he had time to figure out a plan of action on how to deal with Kaizus, on the other hand he wasn't doing anything right now against a being who would only become more powerful and comfortable in its new form.

"I can't think of anything right now, you got anything?" Chaos asked _Deus_

"Well this isn't the first time I've seen something this powerful" she started

"Oh that's wonderful!" Chaos replied as he narrowly avoided another magic beam "So what do I have to do?"

"Let me finish, the last time I did see someone this powerful it was an Ancient. Also I was being wielded by another Ancient so I don't think that my experience in that fight is going to help you… unless you can become a god in the next few seconds." She finished

"Well I'm fucked then" Chaos stated

He jumped over a beam, gathered his own magic at his feet which he detonated to send himself towards Kaizus, and swung his short sword at Kaizus' face. Kaizus didn't make a move to block it and the sword swung straight into his face, but to Chaos' surprise the sword broke on impact. In a blur Kaizus had placed his finger on Chaos' forehead before Chaos could get over his surprise; he gently pushed it and sent Chaos flying at a high speed. Chaos slammed deep into the wall which made him spit some blood out, he fell out of the dent he had made and landed face first on the ground. He got up slowly and saw that Kaizus was charging up another magical beam that he sent towards Chaos who went prone to avoid the blast. He took a quick look behind him to see that the beam had disintegrated everything in its path and wondered if there was anything he could do to defeat Kaizus. He then heard _Deus _hissing again and looked down to see the _Mage Slayer_ in its inactivated form lying a few feet away from him.

"This is convenient" Chaos said in relief picking up the silver handle in his left hand and activated it hearing the same whirling sound and seeing the blade form. However this time the handle of the blade let out two magical blades that cris-crossed though Chaos' arm piercing his flesh at every point and coming out of his shoulder "Ouch, what the hell was that for" he asked angrily

"You are not my master!" the blade yelled in a male voice

"Oh shut up, do you see what you're master has even become?" Deus said with an annoyed tone

"You are the one who should shut up sister! I see what he's become and he's still the same person… he's just gone through some minor transformations" the mage slayer responded

"Minor? If that's minor then I don't want to know what your definition of major is"

"Would you two shut up?" Chaos said slamming both of their handles into each other

"What was that for?" they both asked in unison

"For a couple of extremely powerful weapons created by beings far greater than I can comprehend, you guys are whiny bitches" Chaos commented

"Who're you calling a whiny bi- Argh" Deus said before Chaos slammed her into her brother again

"Now the only thing you guys can say are suggestions on how I can defeat this new version of Kaizus… actually only Deus can give me suggestions, mage slayer if you talk in general I'm going to smash a rock into you" Chaos declared, he was met with silence which he assumed meant compliance on their part

He wondered if the _mage slayer_ would be able to protect him from those beams of magic that Kaizus had been sending. He had a chance to try it out immediately as Kaizus sent a larger beam than he had before at Chaos who figured that Kaizus was finally used to his powers. The beam flew towards him, and he stabbed it with the _mage slayer_ and to both his and Kaizus' surprise the beam upon touching the blade disappeared entirely. Chaos smiled as the battle was now a bit more even and he could bring the fight to Kaizus instead of being on the run the whole battle. Kaizus undeterred from the last beam fired smaller beams at a quicker rate, but Chaos cut through most of them with the _mage slayer_ and dodged the rest of them. He finally got close enough at Kaizus to swing the slayer at him to try and drain his magic instantly but Kaizus blocked it with one of his flashing swords. Kaizus swung the other one which Chaos blocked with Deus but was nearly brought to his knees by the sheer force of Kaizus' strike. He gathered his magic around his feet and detonated it to overcome Kaizus' strength; he broke Kaizus' guard and quickly swung the slayer through Kaizus. After that he spun around and was able to land an explosive kick on Kaizus which sent him to the floor. He knew he would only have one chance at this and began a furious offensive at the weakened Kaizus: he hit Kaizus again with the _mage slayer_ and channeled his magic through Deus which he used to land as many explosive blows as he could on Kaizus the last one sending Kaizus into a wall. He then brought his hands over each other with the palms facing each other and a dark ball formed in the middle as he charged it with as much of his magic as he could

"_Law of Tartaros activate"_ he said quietly

A large explosion of darkness filled the room and sent shockwaves throughout the area, when it cleared most of the area was destroyed except the gathering site which Chaos had left intact. To his horror there was Kaizus floating around like nothing had happened, there wasn't even a dent in his armor.

"How the hell can he still use magic? _Mage Slayer_ if you're holding out on me I swear I'm gonna find a big enough rock to break you in half" Chaos exclaimed in shock

"Hey I may not like you which is evident through me stabbing you through your arm, but don't ever accuse me of holding back" the slayer responded

"He's right Chaos; this is just what happens when you face an Ancient. Their power is so great even my brother can't drain their magic to zero, but because normally another Ancient would be fighting the fact that their enemy was drained of some of their magic would have been good enough for that offensive to win" Deus explained

"I can't help but feel you two are patronizing me" Chaos muttered

"We're not; we're patronizing humans in general. Heck a dragon might have won in this situation" Deus said

"Oh that's nice insult the guy who's been feeding you lives while we've been together. Still it's taking some time for him to try and regenerate his magic back completely so all is not lost yet. If I can get him again then he could have lost enough magic to feel some exhaustion and I could finish him off if I tried again" Chaos said

"Good luck with that" the swords responded in unison

He frowned but didn't respond to them as he was too focused on his only chance of beating Kaizus. He knew that Kaizus would be far more cautious with Chaos when he got close to avoid getting hit again with the _mage slayer_, even more so with getting into deadlocks with Chaos who was a bit surprised he could beat Kaizus at those if he used his _explosive magic_ to help him out. He advanced on Kaizus who continued to fire powerful beams of magic at Chaos who was able to dodge or stop them with the slayer easily enough and get close to Kaizus. However this time Kaizus didn't stay in position choosing to use his wings for the first time in the battle and fly high above Chaos. His wings began to glow and released a shower of light spikes at Chaos who used his explosive magic to launch himself into the air to avoid the spikes. He then detonated more magic to launch himself at Kaizus who couldn't fly away in time to avoid Chaos so he was forced to block his strikes. Chaos' magic was constantly exploding under his feet to keep him floating in the air and now charged it through Deus to give her an explosive strike. Kaizus still proved steady and was now faster than Chaos which made it difficult for him to keep up a sustained assault. Chaos was also himself pressed with time as his magic power was finite compared to Kaizus who in his divine state probably had a near unlimited amount. He lunged with Deus which Kaizus easily dodged and struck down with his great sword which Chaos blocked with the slayer but was knocked down nearly breaking through the floor or what remained of it.

"You know right about now I'm really hoping that Shiori wasn't the only one who failed to stop a ritual from being successful" Chaos said

"Are you just assuming he failed or do you know he failed?" Deus asked

"It's an educated guess, Chelsea is much more powerful than him and her _time ark_ is a bitch to deal with and she's an expert at it. That and Shiori is an idiot when it comes to battlefield strategy so I doubt he overcame it" Chaos explained

"Well who else do you think would fail?" Deus asked

"Oh I don't know" Chaos said as he flew up again to resume his battle with Kaizus "I'm guessing that Julia and Mavis are likely members who have a good chance of failing, considering their mindsets heading into the battle and the fact that they're going up against some very good fighters. Well here's hoping to their failures"

"Still talking to you sword" Kaizus said

"Yes, and would you stop talking please? My ears can't handle the whole everyone around me is talking to me at once thing, it's really loud… and creepy" Chaos called back

"Fair enough" Kaizus replied unintentionally annoying Chaos some more

Chaos was now praying with all his might that one of his squad would have failed in preventing a ritual from starting even if it meant they died in the process. The battle went for too long and had pretty much returned to what it had started out as, him running away from the god like Kaizus only this time he at least had the _mage slayer_ as an added defense. He had to ground himself on what was left of the floor due to the fact that he was running out of magic and couldn't afford to use anymore to fly. Kaizus knew that it was a matter of time for him to outlast Chaos thereby gaining victory and he began hammering Chaos with magical beams. Chaos was still able to dodge all of them but was also running out of ground to land on, he was slowly becoming resigned to his fate.

"Well Deus I have to say it's been a good run we've had together but you'll probably have to find a new master soon" he said while cutting apart another onslaught of beams from Kaizus

"You may be right, either way I will admit I've never had a stranger Master than you and it was kind of nice" she said

"I don't know if that's a complement but I'll take it" Chaos said

Kaizus figured it was about time to try and finish things off now before he would go and gather up the Councilors for his future plans. He lifted both hands up in the air and a large ball of light began forming at the top of it growing bigger by the second. As Chaos wondered if the _mage slayer_ could cut through that new attack, he suddenly felt a familiar magic being added into the room. Kaizus had also noticed this and looked down to see what was happening; the Ancients magic was gathering up in the basin and being sent into the again active silver gate for purification. Kaizus shrugged and turned to see where Chaos was; to his shock Chaos was now charging towards the gate and Kaizus realized too late what he was planning. He fired the ball towards Chaos who simply threw the still active _mage slayer_ at the ball to give him more time to reach the gate. The _mage slayer_ took out most of the ball but was tossed aside by the ball which headed towards Chaos, he gathered as much magic as he could to his feet and detonated it which sent him headfirst into the purified energy.

"Is this how I helped you out in the end?" Guran interrupted

"Yep, so thank you for being good at your job and to Mavis for being so incompetent" Chaos responded with a bright smile annoying the current Chairman

Chaos felt the magic of the Ancients filling up his body and it was a very foreign sensation to him but it was soothing as well. He felt his magical energy reach levels that he thought impossible, but he noted that curiously he wasn't undergoing the same transformation that Kaizus had gone though. His skin color remained the same as it had been but noticed that it progressively became blurrier until he thought he was going blind, but a quick look around the room showed that only his hands were blurry. In fact his entire body had become blurry which made no sense to him but he decided to go along with it. Kaizus had sent a flurry of light spikes towards Chaos but the spikes were strangely turned into balls of light that bounced off Chaos harmlessly when they got close to him. Chaos had finished absorbing the magic and jumped out and landed on the ground which was grew bigger as he took each step forward.

"What are you?" Kaizus asked

"Good question, I wish I knew the answer myself" Chaos answered

"You know that your whole body is like seriously fucked up right?" Kaizus asked

"It's just blurry Kaizus because it's in some chaos right now" Chaos said before laughing at his unintentional pun

"Very funny, but I don't understand"

"Remember when I said I used _explosive magic_?"

"Yeah, what about it?"

"I may not have been telling the entire truth at the time. You see Kaizus I also studied the remnants of _Chaotic Magic_ which is why I took that as my new name, but while you focused on the ability to create copies of yourself I decided to train in the explosive part of it"

"What? That's impossible the tomes I studied only showed the cloning process!"

"Yeah because you probably found the tomes that trained you in that part, dude _Chaotic Magic_ is really complicated and difficult to learn. But because it can do so many different things it's really useful in any sort of situation which is why I love it"

"But if we both learned it then how come we turned into different things?"

"The answer is easy Kaizus. You wanted to become a god while I wanted to become strong enough to kill you. You were turned into what your image of a god was, while I was given the power needed to use _True Chaotic Magic_"

"_True Chaotic Magic?"_

"Yeah turns out that all we were missing was Ancient Magic to be able to do a bunch of things that humans would normally never be able to do… like create a _distortion field _around you!"

"No matter I'll kill you with my superior power!"

"Except we're at equal levels you idiot" Chaos said walking over to where the _mage slayer _was discarded and activated it once more

"Don't ever throw me at things again, and dear god what happened to you?" the slayer said

"He's gotten the Ancient power to be a true Chaotic Mage" Deus answerd

"Ah, there really aren't enough of those people in the world. They're a fun bunch as long as you're in good standing with them, otherwise they just fuck with you" the slayer commented

"Then we're all friends for now?" Chaos asked

"Sure thing" the blades answered

Chaos smirked and launched himself towards Kaizus who had fired more beams at Chaos before flying to meet him. Chaos destroyed the beams with his mage slayer and clashed with Kaizus, they were moving at whirling speeds yet neither could break their opponent's guard. Chaos noted that Kaizus' blades and armor seemed to be changing around at certain points for no logical reason. He realized that the _distortion field_ around him was messing with them but couldn't change them entirely due to Kaizus keeping them strengthened. Chaos was still uncertain of his new capabilities but wasn't sure if playing with his new powers was a good idea given his circumstances. He decided to cautiously explore the new powers by seeing if he could detonate his magic quicker and control when he stopped. He was excited by his new control over his powers and used them along with his blurring speed to gain an advantage over Kaizus. He was able to quickly get behind Kaizus and before the other could react, kicked him down with an explosion aided kick. Kaizus sent a flurry of spikes as he fell down towards Chaos but again they turned into balls of light which did no damage to Chaos. Chaos sliced down with _Deus_ and although she didn't pierce through Kaizus' armor she still sent Kaizus hurdling through the wall and was closely followed by Chaos. Kaizus quickly got back up and fired another light beam at Chaos who again destroyed it with the _mage slayer._

"You think you would have figured out that your little beams aren't going to work against me" Chaos said

"Shut up! How the hell are you not dead yet I'm a god there's nobody who can stop me!"

"Would you listen to yourself Kaizus? You're sounding more like a fucked up dictator rather than the benevolent ruler you promised you would be. Besides we're equal now, except I know what I'm doing with my magic while you switched to a different one entirely and are trying to defeat me with it which won't happen."

Kaizus roared out in anger and furiously sliced his great swords at Chaos who was easily parrying or dodging them. He exploded himself behind Kaizus and sliced him with both the _mage slayer and Deus_; Kaizus could feel his magic and life being drained as Deus was now sucking away slowly at his life force. He managed to swing his great swords at Chaos which made him have to bring both blades out to avoid the strikes, giving Kaizus a brief respite. Chaos could sense that Kaizus was weakened and this time could take full advantage of him and moved in for the kill. However he was surprised by the amount of power that Kaizus still had as Kaizus swung hard with both of this weapons at the _mage slayer_ the force making Chaos let go of the blade and it flew away from him. Kaizus managed to land a slash across Chaos' chest but realized too late that it was exactly what Chaos wanted. Kaizus couldn't block Chaos' left hand that was coated with his explosive magic aimed at a part of Kaizus' armor that had been weakened by Chaos' _distortion field_; Kaizus felt a sharp pain as the explosive laden punch had ripped through his armor and sent him flying.

"I won't let it end like this!" he screamed in defiance

"One word of advice for you Chaos, if you want to finish him off you're going to have to hit him with something real hard" Deus suggested

"I can't just stab him with you?"

"It'd take a few days for me to drain him completely"

"Ah, but still I can just outlast him right?"

"You could but you're leaving too many things up to chance, you'd have to deal with his armor which is going to regenerate each time also he absorbed more of the Ancient Magic than you did so there's that issue too"

"Alright, I'll finish him now" Chaos said finally

He stabbed Deus through the ground before he launched himself up into the air where he looked down on Kaizus. He felt some pity as Kaizus refused to realize what he had become and knew that he probably never would. He extended his right hand out and immediately a gigantic magic circle appeared over it that extended from the ceiling and ended somewhere about two floors down. Kaizus looked up and realized that Chaos was attempting to finish things up with the spell; he extended out his wings and soon four balls of light began forming on each one. Chaos noticed this and he knew he needed some more time for his spell to be done before it could be casted. With his left hand he began forming another dark ball of energy while Kaizus had finished forming up the balls of light.

"_Impulse!_" Kaizus screamed as he let out the eight balls of light towards Chaos while also sending two beams of light with his hands to aid the _Impulse _spell

"poor fool" Chaos said softly "_Law of Tartaros Activate"_ he finished as the dark ball of energy again exploded but this time met the light magic of Kaizus at the middle. There was a long struggle before the light magic managed to break through Chaos' spell but it had given Chaos enough time to finish his preparations for his other spell "_Abyss Break, Activate"_

The magic circle activated and unleashed a hybrid form of the four elements needed to cast the spell in the first place in a whirling torrent. The torrent ripped through the light magic that had nearly reached Chaos and made its way towards Kaizus who had now realized his impending doom.

"Oh well" he said softly as the magic hit him head on

"You casted an _Abyss Break _at that magnitude? How did it not destroy everyone or everything in the building?" Lahar asked

"Because my _True Chaotic Magic_ can also bend certain rules of magic to my favor, in this case I only targeted Kaizus or whatever that thing was, nobody else" Chaos explained

"So looks you do have a bit of compassion in you" Guran commented

"Hey I still kept my humanity when I gained that power I just wish Kaizus had done the same at the beginning instead of only at the end" Chaos said sadly "Well we're almost done with this tale"

Chaos finally ended the spell and sighed at his victory, it was the first time he actually felt worse after killing a person. He barely had any magic in him left as he had put everything into the Law and Abyss Break spells to finish of Kaizus. He went to pick up _Deus_ who tried congratulating him on the victory but stopped when he gave her a tired look; he was surprised when he saw Kaizus' original form lying in a pile of rubble and it looked like he was still alive as well.

"Tough bastard" he muttered as he staggered towards Kaizus "Guess I shouldn't have used so much magic… or taken that slash in the chest" he said looking down to see he had left a trail of blood

"Deus would you mind helping me out here?" he asked

"No problem" she said, the blade suddenly began glowing a dark purple that channeled itself into Chaos. The energy filled him and began healing his wounds as he walked towards Kaizus finally finishing as he stopped in front of the fallen Chairman

"Kaizus"

"Chaos" Kaizus responded weakly "I guess you win"

"I guess I do … although I don't think I'll get to 'enjoy' this victory for too long old friend" Chaos said in a tired voice

"Haha, you always did look to the future rather than enjoying the present"

"Who says I don't enjoy the present? It just so happens that my future doesn't look too bright"

"The world's future doesn't look too bright right now either"

"It looks brighter than it did before"

"Says who? The idiots who still run their little kingdoms will continue to fight and the people will always suffer for it, I had a chance to change everything but you got in the way"

"There's a difference Kaizus, people can still change what's happening right now. If you messed up then there would be nothing that could change you"

"We'll never know now will we?"

"I guess we won't'"

"If there's nothing more for you to say, then I ask that you kill me now instead of letting me lie like this"

"Sorry old friend, I can't do that either"

"What do you mean?"

"You'll find out soon enough" Chaos said as he walked forward and stabbed Kaizus in the chest with Deus as he could hear footsteps approaching.

"Wake up! Something's gone wrong with the Chairman I can feel it" Chelsea yelled while trying to shake Jillhearts awake

"Chelsea what's going on?" Jillhearts asked rubbing her head "And where'd that pink haired woman go, I think her name was Julia Dragneel or something?"

"Pink haired woman? I didn't see one when I reached here, but we have more important things to deal with now. On the way here I felt two powerful bursts of energy, they happened at different times and I'm pretty sure it happened at the gathering site and we need to go now" Chelsea said

"Then why'd you come to pick me up instead of checking on it yourself?" Jillhearts asked

"Because you're the Chairman's wife and I figured you'd like to know what happened to him" Chelsea said

"Fair enough, let's go" Jillhearts said getting up with Chelsea's assistance

Chelsea had to support most of Jillheart's weight as the two made their way to find out what happened to Kaizus. The elevator finally reached the floor and they walked towards the door where the spectral guardians were supposed to be, but none were to be found. The door itself had been torn apart from its hinges and the room they entered in on was in no better condition. However what ended up catching their attention was a strange noise coming from their left which they turned to find. What they saw horrified them, there was Chaos holding his dark sword that had impaled the Chairman and it looked like it was doing something evil to Kaizus whose face was contorted in pain and soon it looked like his body had been drained of all life but that horrible pained expression was still on his face.

"What are you doing to him?" Jillhearts screamed angrily causing Chaos to turn around

"Oh great, it's a game of Fuck, Marry, Kill right in front of me. Let's see… I'd fuck you Jillhearts, Marry Chelsea over there, and kill Kaizus which I just did well as far as you two know, so we're already one third of the way through with the game!" he said

"You bastard! I thought we were friends, how could you do this!" Jillhearts yelled with tears running down her cheeks

"It wasn't easy I'll tell you that much but your husband and I had a brutal fight which ended in both us using all our magical power and me winning!" Chaos said happily as he sheathed _Deus_

"Chaos, why did you do this?" Chelsea asked calmly letting Jillhearts down and taking out her _Chrono Blade_, but Chaos didn't respond "Answer me!" she screamed

"Do with me what you want I'm far too tired to do anything about it, but if you kill me let it be known that I die a hero and as a savior to this wretched world" Chaos said before collapsing in exhaustion

"Chelsea don't kill him" Jillhearts said as she saw Chelsea going closer to Chaos

"Why not? He just killed the Chairman and doomed countless amounts of people to terrible lives because of that, he deserves to die!" Chelsea exclaimed

"Not die, suffer"


	32. Epilouge

"Well after that line I lost consciousness and I woke up in this cage just in time to see Jillhearts give me one last hateful look before shutting the door" Chaos said

"How come Deus didn't restore your magic when she healed you?" Lahar asked

"Deus gives and takes life away but not magic which I needed if I had any chance of making it past those two. Anyway this is the end of the story as far as I know" he answered

"Well if you two don't mind I would like to tell you a bit about what happened after that catastrophic battle" Guran said

Jillhearts had been named interim Chairman while the Council would have to sort through the mess that had been made. Bad news kept coming as Daichi's body or what was left of it had been found, Hana was also nowhere to be found and the rest of the Councilors were heavily wounded or dispirited except for Jacky who didn't care about what was happening. Naturally the Kingdoms of Earthland they had asked assistance from were now demanding an explanation as to what had occurred, except for Fiore who had known what the Council was doing the entire time but they were angered at the loss of their Executioners. The public wasn't so happy either both the mages and the commoners were demanding some sort of explanation; the fact that Tartaros was spreading around the plans didn't help the Council's cause either. She had called a meeting with the remaining Councilors to try and figure out what to do at the moment.

"Well before we get to talking on what to do with all the calls for an explanation of what's going on, what's the status of our forces?" Jillhearts asked

"Not good Chairman, um Chairwoman… Jillhearts. We've lost over half of our Rune Knights alone, two enforcement squads were destroyed entirely, and a good chunk of our guards either fell in the battle or deserted." Chelsea reported

"Not to mention we have no idea what happened to Hana either" Hitsugaya added

"What about Tartaros? What are we supposed to do about them now" Guran asked with a hint of rage in his voice

"Calm down Guran, we're in no position to lay down punishment at the moment. The public supports Tartaros' actions too much for us to do any real damage to them now" Jacky said

"Well we'll have to come up with an official explanation first, then we'll deal with Tartaros" Kieran suggested

"He's right, with the plans circulating around and the way Tartaros has been explaining things we don't have much room to spin things to get us in a better light" Jillhearts said "Any ideas?"

"None" everyone but Guran replied in unison

"Guran you got any ideas?" Jillhearts asked

"Well I have a thought… what if we just make everyone forget about all of this?" he started

"Why would they suddenly forget everything?" Jacky asked while taking a drink of whiskey

"_Memory Manipulation"_ Guran answered

"What? You have to be out of your mind do you know how much magic would be needed to make everyone forget about what happened?" Kieran asked in shock

"Hold on let him explain" Chelsea said

"We'll need to get the Kingdoms on our side to be able to do this though, but think about it if we manipulate everyone to forget about this we could get out of this without having to dissolve the Council which is the likely outcome otherwise" Guran explained

"As unethical as it sounds I have to admit it's our only option at this point but we need to make sure that in the end only we remember that we manipulated everyone's memories otherwise they could hold the Council hostage" Chelsea said

"I think it would be wise as well, we'll put it up to a vote all in favor?" Jillhearts said

"Aye" Guran and Chelsea said at once

"Aye" Kieran said after a few moments of thought

"Aye" Hitsugaya said a few seconds later

"Does it really matter what I think at this point?" Jacky asked

"Technically it doesn't" Jillhearts said

"Then go ahead I won't have anything to do with this" Jacky said seriously

"Well then we have our solution, now we need to call the rulers of the Kingdoms over here to get their approval" Jillhearts said "Hitsugaya organize the enforcement squads or what's left of them, we need to get the Kings over here as fast as we can" she ordered

"Aye Aye Chairman er woman" Hitsugaya said

"Dismissed then" Jillhearts said adjourning the meeting

"Jillhearts can I talk with you for a second?" Chelsea asked

"Yeah what is it?"

"Are you sure you're in the right state of mind to do all this?"

"Why wouldn't I be?"

"Because you just lost your husband, locked away a good friend of yours for life and you do have a daughter to take care of… I'm just worried about you that's all" Chelsea said worriedly

"It's alright Chelsea it would be wrong of me to run away from this, but when this is all done I think I'm going to retire and just live a nice quiet life" Jillhearts said which seemed to please Chelsea who gave her a pat on the shoulder before walking off

"I'm impressed with you Guran" Chaos interrupted

"How so?"

"I didn't think you had it in you to suggest something as devious as making everyone forget about your wrongdoings." Chaos explained with a smile

"We were restoring order to a world that you threw into Chaos" Guran retorted

"Yeah because you guys initiating a hostile takeover the world totally would have been done without any violence or chaos at all" Chaos replied sarcastically

"Would you two shut up for a second I want to hear what happened!" Lahar yelled out "Um sorry Chairman I didn't mean that personally"

"Haha, that's alright Lahar you're just curious which is understandable" Guran laughed "Well in the interest of time and my audience I'll skip to when we had gathered the rulers of the land together" he said

Jillhearts was getting annoyed by the squabbling of these kings, so much so she was seriously thinking of incinerating them right now. Unfortunately for her members of Tartaros had been invited by the kings to the hearing including Kazuo who was watching her with a close eye. She refused it initially but the kings soon made it a point of contention as according to them it would only be fair to have both sides present at the meeting to get both sides of the story. Kazuo had come to the meeting personally, one was to prevent the Councilors from trying to force their views on the rulers and also at Mavis' insistence to find out what happened to Chaos. Kazuo himself was getting annoyed with the way these kings were fighting each other over who got to talk first after both sides had relayed to them what had happened, something that seemed pointless to him. Finally he released some of his magic aura that made them cower in fear of him and he spoke to them in his loudest voice.

"Silence!" he commanded "Now we're all going to do this in a civil fashion, the Councilors here came here to make a proposal that we will all decide on. Ms. Strauss you have the floor" Kazuo said

"Well like Kazuo said so eloquently, we've come with a proposal on how to deal with the uproar that has been caused" Jillhearts began

"Well let's hear it then" the King of Fiore said angrily

"If you would let me speak your highness. Now the Council has… unanimously agreed upon the solution that we use _Memory Manipulation_ on the people to try and restore order" Jillhearts said

"What? That's absurd do you know how much magic that would take, besides you're the ones who should be worried about order not us" several kings responded in shock

"Well actually since you guys support the Council so much the people will probably link you to the Council and say you helped them. Especially since you guys sent troops to the Council Building there's also proof to back that belief up, for all you know the people are massing together to overthrow you guys as we speak" Kazuo commented

"He's right; it would be dangerous of you to assume that you're all safe from the backlash as well. But it is true we would need a lot of magic to get this done which is why we were hoping that you would order your mages to help us in that regard" Jillhearts said

"Who would you guys be manipulating though is my question after all there are many of us who know what's going on" Kazuo said

"Everyone here of course would be safe from the manipulation if that's what you're asking" Jillhearts answered

"What about the mages who will be doing the manipulating themselves"

"Don't worry too much about that"

"Hmm, whatever you say" Kazuo said still filled with suspicion "I would like to talk with you after this meeting is over"

"Whatever you say" Jillhearts dismissed before resuming the meeting

"So are we all in agreement?" she asked

"Aye" they all responded in unison

"I guess so" Kazuo said still filled with doubt

"Damn it Kazuo why'd you have to be so weak at this time" Chaos muttered

"Can you blame him really?"

"I can and I will, just keep going with this dumb story" Chaos said angrily

"Alright so we've agreed on our course of action all of you will get your mages together and we'll tell you when to begin the process" Jillhearts said and walked towards Guran who was watching the meeting in silence "You know what to do" she told him and he nodded wordlessly

"Jillhearts I assume this is the best time for us to have our talk" Kazuo said approaching her

"What do you want to talk about?" she asked with a hint of hostility

"I'm wondering about the location of a certain member of our guild, goes by the name of Chaos" Kazuo said

"He's not with you guys?"

"No, we've been able to account for most of the casualties in our guild and allies in the case of Shiori. But since Chaos was at the top floor we have no idea what happened to him, and he hasn't come back to the guild which either means he's dead or you guys have him" Kazuo answered

"We haven't seen him" Jillhearts said looking straight at Kazuo's eyes

"You're sure of this?"

"Yes I am now if you'll excuse me I need to get going and organize this" she said leaving

Kazuo watched her leave closely followed by Guran and they shut the door leaving him alone in the room. He sighed and went back to where the members he had come with were waiting including Mavis who ran up to him the minute he came out.

"Did you find out what happened to my brother?" she asked

"No, Jillhearts said that they didn't find his body and haven't seen him at all" he answered

"She's lying I know she is!" Mavis accused

"We can't be sure of it, besides it would be dangerous of us to stoke tensions with them again especially now" Guran said

"What? But you could just walk in there and beat them all you're far more powerful than all of them" Mavis said desperately

"We don't know if they have him at all, if I did that without finding him there then another war would start and this time the Kingdoms would throw their weight behind the Council and we'd all end up dead or arrested" Kazuo said bluntly

"But-" Mavis started

"I'm sorry Mavis but unless he shows up on his own we have to assume he's dead or missing" Kazuo said patting her on the head

"After that I don't know what happened to Tartaros except that we were able to make them forget about the whole incident including you" Guran said

"You made sure I'd be locked up here forever didn't you?" Chaos asked

"It was Jillheart's idea she wanted you to suffer so I did what I was told" Guran said

"That vindictive bitch all I did was kill her husband, oh well she does know how to annoy the crap out of me I'll give her that" Chaos said "…I do have a question for you though Guran how did you know I'd still be alive after all of this?"

"Because when I saw your body you were nearly drained of your regular magic, but you had a little bit of another energy that I recognized as the Ancients magic. I wasn't so sure about the immortality part of it… I'm still not but you've been using that meditative technique Jax taught you to keep yourself alive haven't you?" Guran answered

"I didn't say everything spiritually he taught me was worthless" Chaos shrugged

"Did Jillhearts end up retiring like she said she would?" Lahar asked

"Yes she retired giving the position of Chairwoman to Chelsea who ran the Council quite well after it was all done. Jacky left as I think he wanted nothing more to do with us and I stayed a few more years before I went on a few journeys but I came back when they asked me to head the reformed Council after the whole Jellal incident" Guran answered

"Wait there was another conspiracy with the Council? That's rich!" Chaos laughed

"Well it turns out that we need to do a bit better when it comes to the vetting process" Guran commented

"I'll say, well is there anything else you'd like to add or are we all done here?" Chaos asked

"Nothing more except that everyone forgot about you"

"Even Mavis?" Chaos asked softly

"Even Mavis" Guran answered

"That's depressing well I'll be here if you guys ever want to chat again" Chaos said

"It was interesting to meet you sir" Lahar said getting up to stretch

"You too" Chaos said assuming his meditative form one again

"Come Lahar it's time we get going" Guran said getting up and leaving closely followed by Lahar as they were about to reach the door Chaos stood up again

"I'll get out of this cage I swear it!" Chaos yelled defiantly as Guran stopped momentarily then closed the door "…Someday" Chaos said softly before sitting down again

Lahar certainly was given a lot to think about as he and the Chairman made their way to leave this forgotten place. He wondered how he would have acted and couldn't come up with a conclusion that made him happy.

"We were both right" Guran suddenly said

"What?" Lahar asked

"I've realized that given the information both sides had, they were doing the right thing. We were right in trying to make a better world, but they were also right in trying to prevent a dystopia" Guran explained

Lahar nodded his head although it did give him even more to think about, it was strange hearing the Chairman say this but he decided not to ask the Chairman why he said it. They made their ways past he bodies that were still there and Lahar suddenly remembered an important detail.

"Wait Chairman, why was this building abandoned?" Lahar asked

"The pure power of the Ancients was making it impossible to repair the building let alone try and work in it. Chaos' distortion magic was affecting everything near the top floors so we were forced to leave it, besides I think too much happened here that it would have affected us negatively if we stayed. So we shut this place away from existence and leaving Chaos as the only one here, in a way it was our final punishment to him as nobody would ever be able to find him" Guran explained

"I see" Lahar said softly "but if you agreed that he was right to act as he did why did you still leave him there?"

"Because" Guran started "He's one of the most dangerous men left alive in this planet if he got out who knows what he would do"

Lahar could tell the Chairman had other reasons for leaving him there including things like revenge for his fallen comrades. Guran turned around and once began charging up his magic to once again seal off the area, Lahar was nearly crushed once more by the Chairman's power which made wonder what would have happened if he had actually been there to watch the duel between Chaos and Kaizus. Guran finished sealing off the area and they began the long journey back to the Council Building leaving history behind them.

Chaos had returned to his mediations and was again floating calmly in the cell that was supposed to inhibit his magical use. However he would never have enough to break out on his own as the cell prevented him from accessing his full amount, what was worse even if he could get out the sheer amount of security spells in the area meant he'd get shot down easily. His only hope was for someone to come and break him out, but these spells could recognize the intentions of whoever walked into the room and would begin firing at them immediately. A hundred and fifty years locked away with only yourself to talk to would have driven him insane, but the meditating was the only thing that had kept him sane as it did give him a lot to think about. A long time passed before he was awoken by a very powerful force that was coming closer to him.

"Hmm now what do we have here?" he asked getting out of his meditation and stood up to see what was happening

The door was thrown off its hinges and immediately the seals in the room became active and faced the door. A hooded figure walked into the room and the seals opened fire on the figure who either didn't know they were there or ignored them entirely. Chaos watched curiously as the figure finally noticed the beams heading his way and simply stuck their hand out against the oncoming onslaught.

"Well they're dead, but they at least managed to raise me hopes for a second so there's that" Chaos said before sitting back down

To his surprise the figure was still standing there and continued forward, Chaos watched his progress with a fair amount of interest as now more traps were activated to prevent the figure's progress. Runes, magical chains, and countless other spells were sent at the figure, but to no avail as the figure simply walked through them like nothing was happening. The final sets of defenses were activated as the figure was within twenty feet of Chaos; a large magic circle activated and began spinning around as it prepared to fire off the spell.

"Aww how sweet they put an _Abyss Break_ here to make sure I wouldn't get out of jail" Chaos commented

The figure stuck its hand up in the air where a magic circle formed over it; the _Abyss Break _activated unleashing the elemental hybrid at the figure. The figure's magic circle activated sending out a large beam that met the torrent of elements, surprisingly the beam held steady before it began pushing the _Abyss Break_ back slowly. Eventually it pushed back the _Abyss Break_ back into the magic circle it came from and destroyed it entirely which made Chaos very interested as to who this was. The figure cracked its neck before getting close enough to Chaos where it sat down on the ground looking at him for a few moments.

"How are you doing?" Chaos asked

"Fine, yourself?" the figure answered cordially

"I've been better I just talked to another person for the first time in a hundred and fifty years and then you showed up just now, my luck just keeps getting better and better. Who knows maybe in another hundred and fifty years someone will decide to let me out for a walk" Chaos said

"I have another proposition for you, how about I let you out entirely?" the figure asked getting up to look at Chaos eye to eye

"I'd love that, but who are you is my second question for you" Chaos said

"Let me show you" the figure said taking off his hood which revealing his face, Chaos was surprised at how much it looked like his face he swore he was looking at his reflection "Oh great I'm dreaming aren't I?" Chaos asked

"No not really just pinch yourself you can't feel pain in dreams" the figure recommended

"You idiot if it's a lucid dream I'm having then I can feel pain… dumbass" Chaos said

"Well I'll leave you up to that interpretation then, safe to say I know that I'm awake and you've gotten me to go on a tangent. First thing is that I have an objection to your story, you made me and my daughter sound like a couple of dumbasses who rely on overpowering people" the figure said

"Your daughter? Oh hmm this is strange, here I was thinking you hated humans so what are you doing in this form?" Chaos realized

"It has its uses like letting me wonder around when I'm bored" the figure answered

"Well Acnologia, you were an idiot in your dragon form and Julia was an even bigger one but she came through in the end which I guess is all that counts" Chaos said "Oh and you've got the teeth messed up, they're all dragon like and sharp"

"Oh?" Acnologia said touching his teeth and reeling back in pain "That is sharp"

"Yeah so I guess my next question is what are you doing here in the first place" Chaos asked

"Ah right, well I needed someone I could trust to help me out" Acnologia answered

"Since when do you need help?" Chaos asked in disbelief

"Since I figured out there's someone who's out for my head"

"So everyone?"

"Well it is true everyone wants me dead but there are people who actually have an idea of how to do so, and I'm afraid I don't know who they are"

"That's why you took that form then"

"Exactly, unfortunately it's been a while since I've been sleuthing so I don't really know what to ask, but I figured who better to recruit then one of the best assassins history has known?"

"Aww, you're just saying that"

"I am, but you're the best assassin who's still alive and the only one who'd be fine working under me"

"Well I am kind of desperate to get out of this cage, but what if I decide to leave you and not help you the minute you let me go free?"

"I'll burn everything down while I hunt you down and eat you"

"Wouldn't want that now would I?"

"I wouldn't recommend it"

"Hmm sure what have I got to lose" Chaos shrugged

"Don't move" Acnologia said getting up and ripping the top part of the cage off with a slice off his right hand

"Thank you" Chaos said getting up and taking his first steps of relative freedom "Oh this feels great!" he said stretching his legs

"Now I know that in both Fiore and Ishval there are… events about to unfold that will determine my fate and I'd like you to investigate them for me"

"What will you be doing?"

"Oh you know roaming around and doing my thing I'm getting a bit tired of this human form"

"That's cause you don't know how to use my face properly, but do what you want I'll see who'd dare try and bring the Dragon King down" Chaos said releasing some of his magic to test himself out

"I'll leave you to it then, you know where I roost so drop by when you have something to report to me" Acnologia said as he turned to leave

Chaos shrugged and began running around the room to try and shake off the rust, he performed various acrobatic maneuvers, and stopped when he was satisfied with the results. He then released his magic which nearly brought himself to his knees as he hadn't done this in so long, he charged magic on his feet and detonated it sending him flying. He landed softly and went up to a nearby wall and started destroying sections of the wall with explosive punches for fun until he was satisfied. He looked around and smiled when he saw Deus still giving off her dark aura and he sprinted over to her and picked her up.

"Missed me partner?"

"You've been next to me this entire time so no. But I have missed being in the outside world if that's what you mean" she answered

"Of course it is"

"Well ready to get out of this dump" she asked

"Yep, it's time for the world to remember who I am"

**The End**

**Author's note**

For those of you decided to read this until the end I say thank you. Chaos' story will be continued in the sequel to this fic which I'll start writing… eventually finals are terrible things I know. Oh and if you have questions about this tale or want to point out plot holes (and I'm sure there are some) feel free to message me.


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